3  1822  00572  9652 


Sv   war; 


PROVipEB*BY 
TH£-PEdf*tE 


THRQUGH-THE 
AMERICAN 
LIBRARY 
ASSOCIATION 

'    FOR. 
THE-USE-OF 
THE'SOLDIERS 
AKD-SAILbRi 


iilK. 


i  •;  ■ 


UBRARY 

UNIVCRSJTY  OF 

CALIFORNIA 

\       SAN  DfEGO'  ■   y 

^-mi 


WSON,  ILL. 


■1  'J 

>  o 


P    tu   CJ 


£-'  •j;  CO 
to 


'•:»• 


^ 

t   * 


i/         J^ 


\ 

-VS.A 


'=3 

o 

a 


F 


7 


Till':  AMKRICAN   NATION 
A    HISTORY 

PROM   ORIGINAL  SOURCES   BY  ASSOCIATED   SCHOLARS 
EDITED  DV 

ALBERT  DUSHXHLL  HART.  LL.D. 

rBorissoR  or  histokt  in  harvako  unitbisitt 

ADVISED   nv 
VARIOUS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETIES 

IN  37  VOLUMES 
VOL.   U 


THE    AMERICAN    NATION 
A    HISTORY 


LIST  OF  AUTHORS  AND  TITLES 

Group  I. 

Foundations  op  the  Nation 

Vol.  I  European  Background  of  American 
History,  by  Edward  Potts  Chey- 
ney,  A.M.,  Prof.  Hist.  Univ.  of  Pa. 

*'  2  Basis  of  American  History,  by 
Livingston  Farrand,  M.D.,  Prof. 
Anthropology  Columbia  Univ. 

"  3  Spain  in  America,  by  Edward  Gay- 
lord  Bourne,  Ph.D.,  Prof.  Hist. 
Yale  Univ. 

"  4  England  in  America,  by  Lyon  Gar- 
diner Tjier,  LL.D.,  President 
William  and  Mary  College. 

"  5  Colonial  Self  -  Government,  by 
Charles  McLean  Andrews,  Ph.D., 
Prof.  Hist.  Bryn  Mawr  College. 

Group  II. 

Transformation  into  a  Nation 

Vol.  6  Provincial  America,  by  Evarts 
Boutell  Greene,  Ph.D.,  Prof.  Hist. 
Illinois  State  Univ. 
"  7  France  in  America,  by  Reuben 
Gold  Thwaites,  LL.D.,  Sec.  Wis- 
consin State  Hist.  Soc. 


Vol.  8  Preliminaries  of  the  Revolution, 
by  George  Elliott  Howard,  Ph.D., 
Prof.  Hist.  Univ.  of  Nebraska. 
"  9  The  American  Revolution,  by- 
Claude  Halstead  Van  Tyne, Ph.D., 
Asst.  Prof.  Hist.  Univ.  of  Michi- 
gan. 
"  I  o  The  Confederation  and  the  Consti- 
tution, by  Andrew  Ciumingham 
McLaughlin,  A.M.,  Director  Bu- 
reau Hist.  Research  Carnegie  In- 
stitution. 

Group  III. 

Development  of  the   Nation 

Vol.  II  The  Federalist  System,  by  John 
Spencer  Bassctt,  Ph.D.,  Prof. 
Hist.  Trinity  Coll.  (N.  C). 

"  12  The  Jeffersonian  System,  by  Ed- 
ward Channing,  Ph.D.,  Prof.  Hist. 
Harvard  Univ. 

"  13  Rise  of  American  Nationality,  by 
Kendric  Charles  Babcock,  Ph.D., 
Pros.  Univ.  of  Arizona. 

"  14  Rise  of  the  New  West,  by  Freder- 
ick Jackson  Turner,  Ph.D.,  Prof. 
Am.  Hist.  Univ.  of  Wisconsin. 

"  15  Jacksonian  Democracy,  by  Will- 
iam MacDonald,  LL.D.,  Prof. 
Hist.  Brown  Univ. 

Group  IV. 

Trial  of  Nationality 

Vol.  16  Slavery  and  Abolition,  by  Albert 
Bushnell  Hart,  LL.D.,  Prof.  Hist. 
Harvard  Univ. 


Vol.17  Westward  Extension,  by  George 
Pierce  Garrison,  Ph.D.,  Prof. 
Hist.  Univ.  of  Texas. 

"  1 8  Parties  and  Slavery,  by  Theodore 
Clarke  Smith,  Ph.D.,  Prof.  Am. 
Hist.  Williams  College. 

"  19  Causes  of  the  Civil  War,  by  Ad- 
miral French  Ensor  Chadwick, 
U.S.N. 
20  The  Appeal  to  Arms,  by  James 
Kendall  Hosmer,  LL.D.,  recent 
Librarian  Minneapolis  Pub.  Lib. 

"  21  Outcome  of  the  Civil  War,  by 
James  Kendall  Hosmer, LL.D.,  re- 
cent Lib.  Minneapolis  Pub.  Lib. 

Group  V, 
Natig.njal  Expansion 
Vol.  22  Reconstruction,  Political  and  Eco- 
nomic,by  William  Archibald  Dun- 
ning, Ph.D.,  Prof.  Hist,  and  Pohti- 
cal  Philosophy  Columbia  Univ. 
23  National  Development,  by  Edwin 
Erie  Sparks,  A.M.,  Dean  of  Aca- 
demic College,  Univ.  of  Chicago. 
"    24  National  Problems,  by  Davis  R. 
Dewey,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Eco- 
nomics, Mass.  Inst,  of  Technology. 
"    25  America    the   World   Power,  "by 
John    H.    Latane,    Ph.D.,    Prof. 
Hist.  Washington  and  Lee  Univ. 
26  Ideals  of  American  Government, 
by  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  LL.D., 
Prof.  Hist.  Harvard  Univ. 
"    27  Index  to  the   Series,  by   David 
May  dole  Matteson,  A.M.,  Harvard 
College  Library. 


COMMITTEES  APPOINTED  TO  ADVISE  AND 
CONSULT  WITH  THE  EDITOR 


The  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 

Charles  Francis  Adams.  LL  D..  President 
Samuel  A.  Green.  M  D  .  Vice-President 
James  Ford  Rhodes.  LL.D  .  ad  Vice-President. 
E<lward  Channing.  Ph.D..  Prof.  History  Harvard 

Univ. 
Worthington  C.  Ford.  Chief  of   Division  of  MSS. 

Library  of  Congress 

The  Wisconsin  Historical  Society 

Reuben  G.  Thwaitcs.  LL.D..  Secretary  and  Super- 

intcndont 
Frederick  J.  Turner.  Ph  D..  Prof,  of  American  His- 

t()r>-  Wisconsin  University 
James  D.  Butler.  LL.D.  formerly  Prof.  Wisconsin 

University 
William  W.  Wight.  President 
lli-nry  E.  Lcglcr,  Curator 

The  V'irginia  Historical  Society 

William  Gordon  McCabe.  Litt.D  .  President 

Lyon  G    Tyler,  LL.D..  Prcs.  of  William  and  M.Ary 

Cfillegc 
Judge  David  C.  Richardson 
J.  A.  C.  Chandler.  Professor  Richmond  College 
Edward  Wilson  James 

The  Texas  Historical  Society 

Judge  John  Henninger  Reagan,  President 
George  P.  Garrison.  Ph.D..  Prof,  of   History  Uni- 
versity of  Texas 
Judge  C.  W.  Raines 
Judge  ZacUary  T.  Pullmore 


HENRY    n.AY 
[From  the  original  life  mask  by  John  Henri  Isaac  Browerc) 


rill-:  AMERICAN  NATION:    A  HISTORY 

VULUMB   11 

Risr:  OF  THE  nfav  west 

1819-1829 


BY 

FRHDKRICK  JACKSON  p.'RNER.  Pn.I). 

PHOriSSOIl   OP   AMBHUAM    HISTOIir   IM   THB    UNIVINtlTT 

ur   W  isms  SI  Mi 


WITH  MAinJ 


/^N^--, 

/^C.  /--' 


<«l>0' 


V  ^ 

NEW   YORK  AND   uy^UQ^^^'^ 
HARPER    &   BROTHERS    PUBtT^HERS 

1900 


Copyright,  1906,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 

^/!  riches  rtiirved. 
Published  April,  1906. 


TO 

THE    MEMORY   OF 

ANDREW  JACKSON  TURNER 

MY  FATHER 


EBSITV  C)F 


CAL  l^  ORNI A    SAN  [MX.O 


1822  00572  9652 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

Editor's  Introduction xiii 

Author's  Preface xvii 

I.  Nationalism  and  Sectionalism  (1815-1830)  .  3 

II.  New  England  (1820-1830) 10 

III.  The  Middle  Region  (1820-1830) 28 

IV.  The  South  (1820-1830) 45 

V.  Colonization  of  the  West  (1820-1830)    .     .  67 

VI.  Social  and  Economic  Development  of  the 

West  (1820-1830) 84 

VII.  Western     Commerce     and     Ideals      (1820- 

1830) 96 

VIII.  The  Far  West  (1820-1830) iii 

IX.  The  Crisis  of  1819  and  Its  Results  (1819- 

1820) 134 

X.  The  Missouri  Compromise  (1819-1821) .     .     .  149 

XI.  Party  Politics  (1820-1822) 172 

XII.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  (1821-1823).     .     .     .  199 

XIII.  Internal  Improvements  (1818-1824)     .     .     .  224 

XIV.  The  Tariff  of  1824  (1820-1824) 236 

XV.  The  Election   of  1824  (1822-1825)  ....  245 

XVI.  President  Adams  and  the  Opposition  (1825- 

1827) 26s 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PACB 

XVII.  Internal  Improvements  and  Foreign  Trade 

(1825-1829) 286 

XVIII.  Reaction     Towards     State     Sovereignty 

(1816-1829) 299 

XIX.  The  Tariff  of  Abominations  and  the  South 

Carolina  Exposition  (1827-1828) .     .     .     314 

XX.  Critical  Essay  on  Authorities ^33 

Index 353 


MAPS 

United  States  (1821)  {in  colors) facing    6 

Distribution  of  Population  (1820) 


...  70 

Distribution  of  Population  (1830) 

Western  Indians'  Trading  Posts  and  Routes 

of  Travel  (1820-1835)   (in  colors)    ...       "114 

Russian  Settlements  and  Claims  (1775-1867)       "     208 

Highways   and  Waterways   in  the   United 

States  (1826-1830)  (in  colors) "     226 

House  Vote  on  Survey  Bill  (1824).     ...       "     232 

House  Vote  on  Tariff  Bill  (1824) 


242 
House  Vote  on  Tariff  Bill  (1828) 

Presidential  Election  of  1824  ,  ,,       ^ 

'  260 


Presidential  Election  of  1825 

Cessions    of    Indian    Lands   (1816-1830)   (in 

colors) "310 


EDITOR'S   INTRODUCTION 

IN  many  previous  volumes  of  the  series,  the  re- 
gion beyond  the  Alleghanies  has  been  recognized 
as  an  influence  and  a  potentiaHty  in  American 
history.  Thwaites,  in  his  France  in  America,  shows 
how  the  French  opened  up  the  country  and  pre- 
pared the  way;  the  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  set- 
tlements are  described  in  Howard's  Preliminaries 
of  the  Revolution;  Van  Tyne's  American  Revolu- 
tion goes  into  the  earliest  western  governments; 
McLaughlin's  Confederation  and  Constitution  deals 
with  the  organization  of  the  new  communities  by 
Congress;  Bassett's  Federalist  System  and  Chan- 
ning's  Jeffersonian  System  show  how  the  diplomacy 
and  politics  of  the  country  were  affected  by  the 
appearance  of  a  new  group  of  equal  states;  while 
Babcock's  Rise  of  American  Nationality  carries  the 
influence  of  those  states  into  a  broader  national 
life.  Professor  Turner  takes  up  the  west  as  an 
integral  part  of  the  Union,  with  a  self -consciousness 
as  lively  as  that  of  the  east  or  south,  with  its  own 
aims  and  prejudices,  but  a  partner  in  the  councils 
and  the  benefits  of  the  national  government  which, 
as  a  whole,  it  is  the  aim  of  this  volume  to  describe. 


xiv  EDITOR'S    INTRODUCTION 

In  a  way  the  west  is  simply  a  broader  east,  for 
up  to  the  end  of  the  period  covered  by  this  volume 
most  of  the  grown  men  and  women  in  the  west 
came  across  the  mountains  to  found  new  homes — 
the  New-Englander  in  western  New  York ;  the  Penn- 
sylvanian  diverging  westward  and  southwestward ; 
the  Virginian  in  Kentucky ;  the  North-Carolinian  in 
Tennessee  and  Missouri  and,  along  with  the  South- 
Carolinian  and  Georgian,  in  the  new  southwestern 
states;  while  north  of  the  Ohio  River  the  principal 
element  up  to  1830  was  southern. 

To  describe  such  a  movement  and  its  effects.  Pro- 
fessor Turner  has  the  advantage  to  be  a  descendant 
of  New-Yorkers,  of  New  England  stock,  but  native 
to  the  west,  and  living  alongside  the  most  complete 
collection  of  materials  upon  the  west  which  has  ever 
been  brought  together — the  Library  of  the  Wisconsin 
State  Historical  Society.  His  point  of  view  is  that 
the  west  and  east  were  always  interdependent,  and 
that  the  rising  power  of  the  western  states  in  na- 
tional affairs  was  a  wholesome  and  natural  outcome 
of  forces  at  work  for  half  a  century.  The  trans- 
formation of  the  west  from  a  rude  and  boisterous 
frontier  to  a  group  of  states,  soon  rivalling  their 
parent  communities  in  population  and  wealth,  was 
not  unlike  the  process  through  which  Massachusetts 
and  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  passed  as  colonies, 
except  that  the  inland  people  accepted  ideals  and 
standards  originally  English,  but  worked  out  and 
put  into  shape  by  their  colonist  fathers. 


EDITOR'S    INTRODUCTION  xv 

As  the  volume  treats  of  the  nation,  and  not 
simply  of  any  section,  it  contains  three  chapters 
(i.,  ii.,  iii.)  on  the  social  and  political  life  in  New 
England,  the  middle  region,  and  the  south.  The 
next  four  chapters  are  a  systematic  account  of  the 
west  as  the  settler  and  the  traveller  saw  it  be- 
tween 1820  and  1830.  In  chapter  v.,  on  Coloniza- 
tion, the  settlers  are  traced  from  their  old  homes 
to  their  new  ones  by  road  and  river.  Chapter  vi., 
on  Social  and  Exjonomic  Development,  is  a  pict- 
ure of  frontier  life  in  the  forest  and  on  the  farm; 
chapter  vii.  brings  into  relief  the  need  of  a  market 
and  the  difficulty  of  reaching  tide-water  with  west- 
em  products — a  subject  taken  up  again  in  the  two 
later  chapters  on  internal  improvements;  chapter 
viii.,  on  The  Far  West,  goes  with  the  trapper  into  the 
mountains  and  then  across  the  continent  to  Cali- 
fornia and  to  Oregon,  which  were  included  in  the 
ambitions  of  the  buoyant  westerner. 

Chapters  ix.  to  xi.  are  a  narrative  of  a  succession 
of  national  questions  involving  all  sections  —  the 
commercial .  crisis  of  181 9;  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise, which  was  in  good  part  a  western  question; 
and  the  slow  recrystallization  of  political  parties 
after  1820.  Chapter  xii.  is  on  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
which  included  eastern  questions  of  commerce, 
southern  questions  of  nearness  to  Cuba,  and  west- 
em  questions  of  La  tin- American  neighbors.  Chap- 
ters xiii.  and  xvii.  describe  the  efforts  by  internal 
improvements  to  help  all  the  states,  and  especially 


xvi  EDITOR'S    INTRODUCTION 

to  bind  the  eastern  and  western  groups  together 
by  the  Cumberland  Road  and  by  canals.  Chap- 
ters xiv.  to  xvi.  take  up  the  tarifif  of  1824,  the 
presidential  election  of  that  year,  and  its  political 
results.  Chapter  xviii.  brings  into  clear  light  the 
causes  for  the  reaction  from  the  ardent  nationalism 
described  in  Babcock's  American  Nationality.  With 
chapter  xix.,  on  the  tariff  of  1828  and  the  South 
Carolina  protest,  the  narrative  part  of  the  volume 
closes.  The  Critical  Essay  on  Authorities  and  a 
wealth  of  foot  -  notes  carry  the  reader  back  to 
materials  little  studied  hitherto,  and  prepare  the 
way  for  many  detailed  investigations. 

The  aim  of  the  volume  is  not  to  show  the  Rise 
of  the  New  West  as  though  it  were  a  separate  story, 
but  to  show  how  the  nation  found  itself  in  the 
midst  of  questions  involving  the  west,  and  how  all 
parts  of  the  Union  were  enriched  and  stimulated  by 
the  appearance  of  a  new  section.  It  opens  up  new 
vistas  of  historical  study. 


AUTHOR'S   PREFACE 

IN  the  present  volume  I  have  kept  before  myself 
the  importance  of  regarding  American  develop- 
ment as  the  outcome  of  economic  and  social  as  well 
as  political  forces.  To  make  plain  the  attitude  and 
influence  of  New  England,  the  middle  region,  the 
south,  and  the  west,  and  of  the  public  men  who 
reflected  the  changing  conditions  of  those  sections 
in  the  period  under  consideration,  has  been  my 
principal  purpose. 

The  limits  of  the  volume  have  prevented  the  elab- 
oration of  some  points  well  worthy  of  fuller  treat- 
ment; and,  by  the  plan  of  the  series,  certain  as- 
pects of  the  period  have  been  reserved  for  other 
writers. 

I  desire  to  express  my  cordial  appreciation  of  the 
friendly  criticism  and  assistance  I  have  received 
from  the  editor.  Professor  Hart.  To  Professor  Carl 
R.  Fish,  Professor  A.  A.  Young,  and  Dr.  U.  B.  Phil- 
lips, my  colleagues,  I  am  indebted  for  a  critical 
reading  of  several  chapters.  I  have  drawn  on  the 
manuscript  sources  possessed  by  Dr.  Phillips  for 
information  on  many   points  of  southern  history. 


xviii  AUTHOR'S    PREFACE 

Several  of  the  topics  dealt  with  in  the  volume  have 
been  investigated  by  graduate  students  in  my  sem- 
inary; particularly  I  have  profited  by  the  papers 
of  Professor  Homer  C.  Hockett  on  the  Missouri 
Compromise  and  the  rise  of  Jacksonian  democracy ; 
of  Mr.  Royal  B.  Way,  now  instructor  in  history 
in  Northwestern  University,  on  internal  improve- 
ments; and  of  Dr.  W.  V.  Pooley  and  Mr.  A.  C.  Bog- 
gess  on  the  settlement  of  IlHnois.  Mr.  S.  J.  Buck, 
my  assistant  in  American  history,  prepared  under 
my  direction  some  of  the  maps,  particularly  those 
of  congressional  votes. 

The  map  of  western  fur-trading  posts  in  Captain 
Chittenden's  excellent  History  of  the  American  Fur 
Trade  furnished  the  basis  for  the  map  of  western 
posts  and  trails.  In  the  construction  of  the  map  of 
highways  and  waterways,  I  have  used  the  map  of 
H.  S.  Tanner,  1825,  and  'ResNetVs  American  Trav- 
eller (Washington,  1825).  From  the  maps  in  the 
Eighteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Eth- 
nology have  been  drawn  the  data  for  the  map  of 
Indian  cessions.  The  editor  kindly  supplied  the 
map  of  Russian  settlements  and  claims. 

For  the  portrait  of  Henry  Clay,  which  forms  the 
frontispiece,  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  Charles  Henry 
Hart,  of  Philadelphia,  the  owner  of  the  life-mask 
made  by  J.  H.  Browere. 

Frederick  J.  Turner. 


RISE   OF  THE    NEW   WEST 


Libiafy,  Camp  Cordon,  Ga. 

Iiiis  Wk  \\  U.  S.  GiJVsiniTienl  property. 

DO  NO!  m  II  Amy  m  m  wm 

WH£N   HEAD.  RETURN   TO  LIBH~RY. 

RISE    OF  THE    NEW   WEST 

CHAPTER   I 

NATIONALISM    AND    SECTIONALISM 
(1815-1830) 

THE  history  of  the  United  States  is  the  history 
of  a  growing  nation.  Every  period  of  its  life 
is  a  transitional  period,  but  that  from  the  close  of 
the  War  of  181 2  to  the  election  of  Andrew  Jackson 
was  peculiarly  one  of  readjustment.  It  was  during 
this  time  that  the  new  republic  gave  clear  evidence 
that  it  was  throwing  ofT  the  last  remnants  of  colonial 
dependence.  The  Revolution  had  not  fully  severed 
the  United  States  from  the  European  state  system; 
but  now  the  United  States  attained  complete  in- 
dependence and  asserted  its  predominance  in  the 
western  continent.  It  was  in  this  period  that  the 
nation  strengthened  its  hold  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
by  the  acquisition  of  Florida,  recognized  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  revolting  Spanish-American  colo- 
nies, and  took  the  leadership  of  the  free  sisterhood 
of  the  New  World  under  the  terms  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine. 


4  RISE    OF    THE    NEW    WEST  [1815 

The  joyous  outburst  of  nationalism  which  at  first 
succeeded  the  dissensions  of  the  period  of  war  re- 
vealed itself  in  measures  passed  in  Congress,  under 
the  leadership  of  Calhoun  and  Clay ;  it  spoke  clearly 
in  the  decisions  of  Judge  Marshall;  and  in  the  lofty 
tone  of  condemnation  with  which  the  country  as  a 
whole  reproached  New  England  for  the  sectional- 
ism exhibited  in  the  Hartford  Convention.' 

It  was  not  only  in  the  field  of  foreign  relations, 
in  an  aroused  national  sentiment,  and  in  a  realiza- 
tion that  the  future  of  the  country  lay  in  the  de- 
velopment of  its  own  resources  that  America  gave 
evidence  of  fundamental  change.  In  the  industrial 
field  transportation  was  revolutionized  by  the  in- 
troduction of  the  steamboat  and  by  the  develop- 
ment of  canals  and  turnpikes.  The  factory  system, 
nourished  by  the  restrictions  of  the  embargo  and 
the  war,  rapidly  developed  until  American  manu- 
factures became  an  interest  which,  in  political  im- 
portance, outweighed  the  old  industries  of  shipping 
and  foreign  commerce.  The  expansion  of  cotton- 
planting  transformed  the  energies  of  the  south,  ex- 
tended her  activity  into  the  newer  regions  of  the 
Gulf,  and  gave  a  new  life  to  the  decaying  institu- 
tion of  slavery. 

From  all  the  older  sections,  but  especially  from 
the  south  and  its  colonies  in  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee, a  flood  of  colonists  was  spreading  along  the 

*  Babcock,  Aw.  Nationality  {Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chaps,  ix., 
xviii.;  Gallatin,  Writings,  I.,  700. 


i8i5l  NATION    AND    SECTIONS  5 

waters  of  the  west.  In  the  Mississippi  Valley  the 
forests  were  falling  before  the  blows  of  the  jjioneers, 
cities  were  developing  where  clearings  had  just  let 
in  the  light  of  day,  and  new  commonwealths  were 
seeking  outlets  for  their  surplus  and  rising  to  in- 
dustrial and  political  power.  It  is  this  vast  develop- 
ment of  the  internal  resources  of  the  United  States, 
the  "Rise  of  the  New  West,"  that  gives  the  tone  to 
the  period.  "The  peace,"  wrote  Webster  in  later 
years,  "  brought  about  an  entirely  new  and  a  most 
interesting  state  of  things;  it  opened  to  us  other 
prospects  and  suggested  other  duties.  We  our- 
selves were  changed,  and  the  whole  world  was 
changed,  .  .  .  Other  nations  would  produce  for  them- 
selves, and  carry  for  themselves,  and  manufacture 
for  themselves,  to  the  full  extent  of  their  abilities. 
The  crops  of  our  plains  would  no  longer  sustain 
European  armies,  nor  our  ships  longer  supply  those 
whom  war  had  rendered  unable  to  supply  them- 
selves. It  was  obvious,  that,  under  these  circum- 
stances, the  country  would  begin  to  survey  itself, 
and  to  estimate  its  own  capacity  of  improvement."  * 
These  very  forces  of  economic  transformation 
were  soon  followed  by  a  distinct  reaction  against 
the  spirit  of  nationalism  and  consolidation  which 
had  flamed  out  at  the  close  of  the  War  of  181 2. 
This  was  shown,  not  only  in  protests  against  the 
loose  -  construction  tendencies  of  Congress,  and  in 
denunciations  of  the  decisions  of  the  great  chief- 

'  Webster,  Writings  (National  ed.),  VI.,  28. 


6  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1815 

justice,  but  more  significantly  in  the  tendency  of 
the  separate  geographical  divisions  of  the  country 
to  follow  their  own  interests  and  to  make  combina- 
tions with  one  another  on  this  basis. 

From  one  point  of  view  the  United  States,  even 
in  this  day  of  its  youth,  was  more  like  an  empire 
than  a  nation.  Sectionalism  had  been  fundamental 
in  American  history  before  the  period  which  we 
have  reached.  The  vast  physiographic  provinces 
of  the  country  formed  the  basis  for  the  develop- 
ment of  natural  economic  and  social  areas,  com- 
parable in  their  size,  industrial  resources,  and 
spirit,  to  nations  of  the  Old  World.  In  our  period 
these  sections  underwent  striking  transformations, 
and  engaged,  under  new  conditions,  in  the  old 
struggle  for  power.  Their  leaders,  changing  their 
attitude  towards  public  questions  as  the  economic 
conditions  of  their  sections  changed,  were  obliged 
not  only  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  interests  of 
the  sections  which  they  represented,  but  also,  if 
they  would  achieve  a  national  career,  to  make  ef- 
fective combinations  with  other  sections.* 

This  gives  the  clew  to  the  decade.  Underneath 
the  superficial  calm  of  the  "Era  of  Good  Feeling," 
and  in  contradiction  to  the  apparent  absorption  of 
all  parties  into  one,  there  were  arising  new  issues, 
new  party  formations,  and  some  of  the  most  pro- 
found changes  in  the  history  of  American  evolution. 

*  Turner,  "Problems  of  American  History,"  in  Congress  0} 
Arts  and  Sciences,  St.  Louis,  II. 


I  stales  absolutely  free 

]  States  uiiilergtjing  grailual  abolition 

Free  by  tlie  Ordinance  of  I7t7  ilield  i>ii  the  cour 

l>re-existent  alavis)anrl  by  tlie  constitutions 

U^^A  Territory  free  by  Missouri  Compromise,  mgO 
~j  Slave  States  and  Terriloriea 


Ui  frum    i;r.rin«-Kb  'JO 


1825]  NATION   AND   SECTIONS  7 

The  men  of  the  time  were  not  unaware  of  these 
tendencies.  Writing  in  1823,  Henry  Clay  declared 
that  it  was  a  just  principle  to  inquire  what  great 
interests  belong  to  each  section  of  our  country, 
and  to  promote  those  interests,  as  far  as  practi- 
cable, consistently  with  the  Constitution,  having 
always  an  eye  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole.  '*  As- 
suming this  principle,"  said  he,  "does  any  one 
doubt  that  if  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  and  the  Western  States  con- 
stituted an  independent  nation,  it  would  immedi- 
ately protect  the  important  interests  in  question? 
And  is  it  not  to  be  feared  that,  if  protection  is 
not  to  be  found  for  vital  interests,  from  the  ex- 
isting systems,  in  great  parts  of  the  confeder- 
acy, those  parts  will  ultimately  seek  to  establish 
a  system  that  will  afford  the  requisite  protec- 
tion?'" 

While  the  most  prominent  western  statesman 
thus  expressed  his  conviction  that  national  affairs 
were  to  be  conducted  through  combinations  be- 
tween sections  on  the  basis  of  peculiar  interests, 
Calhoun,  at  first  a  nationalist,  later  the  leader  of 
the  south,  changed  his  policy  to  a  similar  system 
of  adjustments  between  the  rival  sections.  John 
Quincy  Adams,  in  1819,  said  of  Calhoun:  "he  is 
above  all  sectional  and  factious  prejudices  more 
than  any  other  statesman  of  this  union  with  whom 

*  C\a.y,  Works,  IV.,  81,  82;  Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess., 
II.,  1997,  2423. 


8  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1815 

I  have  ever  acted." '  But  Calhoun,  by  the  close  of 
the  decade,  was  not  only  complaining  that  the  pro- 
tective policy  of  certain  sections  set  a  dangerous 
example  "of  separate  representation,  and  associa- 
tion of  great  Geographical  interests  to  promote  their 
prosperity  at  the  expense  of  other  interests,"  but 
he  was  also  convinced  that  a  great  defect  in  our 
system  was  that  the  separate  geographical  inter- 
ests were  not  sufficiently  guarded.^  Speaking,  in 
1 83 1,  of  the  three  great  interests  of  the  nation — 
the  north,  the  south,  and  the  west  —  he  declared 
that  they  had  been  struggling  in  a  fierce  war  with 
one  another,  and  that  the  period  was  approaching 
which  was  to  determine  whether  they  could  be 
reconciled  or  not  so  as  to  perpetuate  the  Union.' 

We  see,  therefore,  that,  in  the  minds  of  some  of 
the  most  enlightened  statesmen  of  this  decade, 
American  politics  were  essentially  a  struggle  for 
power  between  rival  sections.  Even  those  of  most 
enlarged  national  sympathies  and  purposes  accept- 
ed the  fact  of  sectional  rivalries  and  combinations 
as  fundamental  in  their  policies.  To  understand 
the  period,  we  must  begin  with  a  survey  of  the 
separate  sections  in  the  decade  from  1820  to  1830, 
and  determine  what  were  the  main  interests  shown 
in  each  and  impressed  upon  the  leaders  who  repre- 

•  Adams,  Memoirs,  Y.,  361,  VI.,  75. 

^Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report  1899,  II.,  250. 

^  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  VI.,  742;  cf.  J.  Q.  Adams,  in  Richardson, 
Messages  and  Papers,  II.,  297 ;  J.  Taylor,  New  Views,  261 ;  [Turn- 
bull],  The  Crisis,  No.  2. 


1825]  NATION    AND    SECTIONS  9 

sentcd  them.  For  the  purposes  of  such  a  survey, 
the  conventional  division  into  New  England,  mid- 
dle region,  south,  and  west  may  be  adopted.  It  is 
true  that  within  each  of  these  sections  there  were 
areas  which  were  so  different  as  to  constitute  al- 
most independent  divisions,  and  which  had  close 
affiliations  with  other  sections.  Nevertheless,  the 
conventional  grouping  will  reveal  fundamental  and 
contrasted  interests  and  types  of  life  between  the 
various  sections.  In  the  rivalries  of  their  leaders 
these  sectional  differences  found  political  expression. 
By  first  presenting  a  narrative  of  forces  in  the  sep- 
arate sections,  the  narrative  of  events  in  the  nation 
will  be  better  understood. 

A  sectional  survey,  however,  cannot  fully  exhibit 
one  profound  change,  not  easy  to  depict  except  by 
its  results.  This  was  the  formation  of  the  self-con- 
scious American  democracy,  strongest  in  the  west 
and  middle  region,  but  running  across  all  sections 
and  tending  to  divide  the  people  on  the  lines  of 
social  classes.  This  democracy  came  to  its  own 
when  Andrew  Jackson  triumphed  over  the  old  or- 
der of  things  and  rudely  threw  open  the  sanctu- 
ary of  federal  government  to  the  populace. 


CHAPTER    II 

NEW    ENGLAND 
(1820— 1830) 

BY  geographical  position,  the  land  of  the  Puri- 
tans was  devoted  to  provincialism.  While  other 
sections  merged  into  one  another  and  even  had  a 
west  in  their  own  midst,  New  England  was  obliged 
to  cross  populous  states  in  order  to  reach  the  re- 
gions into  which  national  life  was  expanding;  and 
her  sons  who  migrated  found  themselves  under 
conditions  that  weakened  their  old  affiliations  and 
linked  their  fortunes  with  the  section  which  they 
entered.  The  ocean  had  dominated  New  Eng- 
land's' interests  and  connected  her  with  the  Old 
World ;  the  fisheries  and  carrying  -  trade  had  en- 
grossed her  attention  until  the  embargo  and  the 
War  of  181 2  gave  importance  to  her  manufactures. 
In  spirit,  also,  New  England  was  a  section  apart. 
The  impress  of  Puritanism  was  still  strong  upon 
her,  and  the  unity  of  her  moral  life  was  exceptional. 
Moreover,  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  decade  with 
which  we  have  to  deal,  New  England  had  a  pop- 
ulation of  almost  unmixed  English  origin,  contrast- 


1830]  NEW   ENGLAND  11 

ing   sharply,   in  this   respect,   with  the    other   sec- 
tions.* 

With  these  peculiarities.  New  England  often 
played  an  important  sectional  role,  not  the  least 
effective  instance  of  which  had  been  her  inde- 
pendent attitude  in  the  War  of  1812.^  By  1820, 
not  only  were  profound  economic  and  social  changes 
affecting  the  section,  but  its  relative  importance  as 
a  factor  in  our  political  life  was  declining.'  The 
trans  -  Alleghany  states,  which  in  1790  reported 
only  a  little  over  one  hundred  thousand  souls,  at 
a  time  when  New  England's  population  was  over 
one  million,  had  in  1820  reached  a  population  of 
nearly  two  millions  and  a  quarter,  while  New  Eng- 
gland  had  not  much  over  a  million  and  a  half. 
Ten  years  later,  the  latter  section  had  less  than 
two  millions,  while  the  western  states  beyond  the 
Alleghanies  had  over  three  millions  and  a  half,  and 
the  people  northwest  of  the  Ohio  River  alone  num- 
bered nearly  a  million  and  a  half.  In  1820  the 
total  population  of  New  England  was  about  equal 
to  the  combined  population  of  New  York  and  New 
Jersey;  but  its  increase  between  1820  and  1830  was 
hardly    three    hundred    thousand,    not   much   over 

1  For  the  characteristics  of  New  England  in  colonial  times,  see 
Tyler,  England  in  America,  chaps,  xviii.,  xix.;  Andrews,  Co/o- 
nial  Selj -Government,  chaps,  xviii.,  xix.;  Greene,  Provincial 
America,  chaps,  xii.,  xiii.,  xvi. -xviii.;  Bassett,  Federalist  System, 
chaps,  xi.,  xiii.  {Am.  Nation,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  XL). 

*  Babcock,  Ant.  Nationality  (.4m.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap.  ix. 

'  Adams,  United  States,  IX.,  chaps,  iv.,  vii. 


12  RISE    OF   THE    NEW    WEST  [1820 

half  that  of  New  York,  and  less  than  the  gain  of 
Ohio.  If  Maine,  the  growing  state  of  the  group, 
be  excluded,  the  increase  of  the  whole  section  was 
less  than  that  of  the  frontier  state  of  Indiana. 
"Our  New  England  prosperity  and  importance  are 
passing  away,"  wrote  Webster  at  the  beginning  of 
the  period.* 

Were  it  not  that  New  England  was  passing 
through  a  series  of  revolutionary  economic  changes, 
not  fully  appreciated  at  that  time,  doubtless  the 
percentage  of  her  growth  would  have  been  even 
more  unfavorable.  As  it  w^as,  the  rise  of  new 
manufactures  helped  to  save  her  from  becoming  an 
entirely  stationary  section.  In  the  course  of  the 
preceding  two  decades,  New  England's  shipping 
industry  had  reached  an  extraordinary  height,  by 
reason  of  her  control  of  the  neutral  trade  during 
the  European  wars.  The  close  of  that  period  saw 
an  apparent  decline  in  her  relative  maritime  power 
in  the  Union,  but  the  shipping  and  commercial  in- 
terests were  still  strong.  New  England  possessed 
half  the  vessels  owned  in  the  United  States  and 
over  half  the  seamen.  Massachusetts  alone  had  a 
quarter  of  the  ships  of  the  nation  and  over  a  third 
of  the  sailors.'  Of  the  exports  of  the  United 
States  in  1820,  the  statistics  gave  to  New  England 
about  twenty  per  cent.,  nine-tenths  of  which  were 


•  McMaster,  Webster,  90. 

*  Pitkin,  Statistical  View  (ed.  of  1S35),  350. 


1830]  NEW    ENGLAND  13 

from  Massachusetts.'  This  is  rather  an  under- 
estimate of  the  share  of  New  England,  because  a 
portion  of  the  commerce  fitted  out  by  her  capital 
and  her  ships  sought  the  harbor  of  New  York. 

Great  as  was  New  England's  interest  in  the  com- 
mercial policy  of  the  United  States,  the  manufact- 
ures of  the  section  rose  to  such  importance  in  the 
course  of  this  decade  that  the  policy  of  the  section 
was  divided.  The  statistics  of  the  manufactures  of 
the  United  States  at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end 
of  the  period  were  so  defective  that  little  depend- 
ence can  be  placed  upon  them  for  details.  But 
the  figures  for  New  England  were  more  complete 
than  for  the  other  regions;  the  product  of  her 
cotton  mills  increased  in  value  from  two  and  one- 
half  million  dollars  in  1820  to  over  fifteen  and  one- 
half  millions  in  1831 ;  and  her  woollen  products  rose 
from  less  than  a  million  dollars  to  over  eleven 
million  dollars.  In  Massachusetts  alone,  in  the 
same  years,  the  increase  in  cottons  was  from  about 
seven  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  over  seven 
million  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars ;  and  in 
woollens,  from  less  than  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars  to  over  seven  million  three  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars.^ 

In  brief,  the  period  witnessed  the  transfer  of  the 

'  Shaler,  United  States,  I.,  chap,  x.;  MacGregor,  Commercial 
Statistics  of  America,  41,  58,  63,  72,  126,  133. 

^  See  Secretary  of  Treasury.  Report,  i8§4-i8^j,  pp.,  87-92; 
"Treasury  Report,"  in  House  Exec.  Docs.,  22  Cong.,  i  Bess.,  I., 

No.  308. 


14  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1830 

industrial  centre  of  gravity  from  the  harbors  to 
the  water-falls,  from  commerce  and  navigation  to 
manufactures.  Besides  the  textile  mills  of  Rhode 
Island  and  Connecticut,  the  Merrimac  mills  grew 
rapidly  around  Lowell,  Massachusetts;  the  w^ater- 
powers  of  New  Hampshire  became  the  sites  of 
factory  towns,  and  the  industrial  revolution  which, 
in  the  time  of  the  embargo,  began  to  transfer  in- 
dustries from  the  household  to  the  factory,  was 
rapidly  carried  on.  A  labor  class  began  to  de- 
velop, farmers  moved  into  towns,  the  daughters 
worked  in  the  mills.  It  was  not  long  before  Irish 
immigrants  found  their  way  to  the  section  and  re- 
placed the  natives  in  the  mills.  The  old  social  and 
racial  unity  began  to  break  down.* 

Agriculture  still  occupied  the  larger  number  of 
New  England  people,  but  it  was  relatively  a  de- 
clining interest.  As  early  as  1794,  Tench  Coxe  had 
characterized  New  England  as  a  completely  settled 
region,  with  the  exception  of  Maine  and  Vermont. 
The  generation  that  followed  saw  an  expansion  of 
agricultural  population  until  the  best  valley  lands 
were  taken  and  the  hill  -  sides  were  occupied  by 
struggling  farmers.  By  1830  New  England  was 
importing  corn  and  flour  in  large  quantities  from 
the  other  sections.     The  raising  of  cattle  and  sheep 

•  Woollen,  "Labor  Troubles  between  1834  and  1837,"  in  Yale 
Review,  I.,  87;  Martmeau,  Society  in  America,  II.,  227,  243,  246; 
Chevalier,  Society,  Manners,  and  Politics,  137;  Addison,  Lucy 
Larcom,  6;  Clay,  Works,  V.,  467. 


1830]  NEW   ENGLAND  15 

increased  as  grain  cultivation  declined.  The  back- 
country  of  Maine  particularly  was  being  occupied 
for  cattle  farms,  and  in  Vermont  and  the  Berk- 
shires  there  was,  towards  the  close  of  the  decade,  a 
marked  tendency  to  combine  the  small  farms  into 
sheep  pastures.  Thus,  in  the  tariff  agitation  of  the 
latter  part  of  the  decade,  these  two  areas  of  west- 
ern New  England  showed  a  decided  sympathy  with 
the  interests  of  the  wool  -  growers  of  the  country 
at  large.  This  tendency  also  fostered  emigration 
from  New  England,  since  it  diminished  the  num- 
ber of  small  farms.  By  the  sale  of  their  lands  to 
their  wealthier  neighbors,  the  New  England  farmers 
were  able  to  go  west  with  money  to  invest.^ 

In  the  outlying  parts,  like  the  back-country  of 
Vermont,  farmers  still  lived  under  primitive  in- 
dustrial conditions,  supporting  the  family  largely 
from  the  products  of  the  farm,  weaving  and  spin- 
ning under  the  conditions  of  household  industry 
that  had  characterized  the  colonial  period,  slaugh- 
tering their  cattle  and  hogs,  and  packing  their 
cheese.  When  the  cold  weather  set  in,  caravans 
of  Vermont  farmers  passed,  by  sledges,  to  the 
commercial  centres  of  New  England.^  But  the 
conditions  of  life  w^ere  hard  for  the  back-country 
farmer,  and  the  time  was  rapidly  approaching  when 


*  Niles'  Register,  XLIX.,  68;  Smith  and  Rann,  Rutland  County 
[Vt.].  166;  Goodhue,  Hist,  of  Shoreham  [Vt.],  59;  Nat.  Assoc, 
of  Wool  Manufacturers,  Bulletin,  XXX.,  47,  242,  261. 

*  Heaton,  Story  of  Vermont,  chap.  vi. 

VOL.    XIV. — 3 


i6  RISE   OF   THE   NEW    WEST  [1820 

the  attractions  of  the  western  prairies  would  cause 
a  great  exodus  from  these  regions. 

While  New  England  underwent  the  economic 
changes  that  have  been  mentioned,  a  political  rev- 
olution was  also  in  progress.  The  old  Federalist 
party  and  Federalist  ideas  gradually  gave  way. 
Federalism  foimd  its  most  complete  expression  in 
Connecticut,  "the  land  of  steady  habits,"  where 
"Innovation"  had  always  been  frowned  upon  by  a 
governing  class  in  which  the  Congregational  clergy 
were  powerful.  Permanence  in  office  and  the  in- 
fluence of  the  clergy  were  prominent  characteristics 
of  the  Connecticut  government.*  The  ceremonies 
of  the  counting  of  votes  for  governor  indicated  the 
position  of  the  dominant  classes  in  this  society. 
This  solemnity  was  performed  in  the  church. 
''After  the  Representatives,"  wrote  Dwight,  the 
president  of  Yale  College,  "walk  the  Preacher  of 
the  Day,  and  the  Preacher  of  the  succeeding  year: 
and  a  numerous  body  of  the  Clergy,  usually  more 
than  one  hundred,  close  the  procession."  He  notes 
that  there  were  several  thousand  spectators  from 
all  over  the  state,  who  were  perfectly  decorous,  not 
even  engaging  in  noisy  conversation,  and  that  a 
public  dinner  was  regularly  given  by  the  state  to 
the  clergy  who  were  present  at  the  election.^ 

After  the  War  of   181 2,   this  dominance  of  the 

'  Dwight.  Travels,  I.,  262,  263,  291;  Welling,  "Conn.  Federal- 
ism," in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc,  Address,  1890,  pp.  39-41. 
'Dwight,  Travels,  I.,  267. 


1830]  NEW   ENGLAND  17 

Congregational  clergy  throughout  the  section  was 
attacked  by  a  combination  of  religious  and  polit- 
ical forces.*  There  had  been  a  steady  growth  of 
denominations  like  the  Baptists  and  Methodists 
in  New  England.  As  a  rule,  these  were  located 
in  the  remoter  and  newer  communities,  and,  where 
they  were  strongest,  there  was  certain  to  be  a 
considerable  democratic  influence.  Not  only  did 
these  denominations  tend  to  unite  against  the  Fed- 
eralists and  the  Congregationalists,  but  they  found 
useful  allies  in  the  members  of  the  old  and  influ- 
ential Episcopal  church,  who  had  with  them  a 
common  grievance  because  of  the  relations  between 
the  state  and  Congregationalism.  Although  the 
original  support  of  the  Congregational  clergy  by 
public  taxation  had  been  modified  by  successive 
acts  of  legislation  in  most  of  these  states,  so  that 
persons  not  of  that  church  might  make  their  legal 
contributions  for  the  support  of  their  own  clergy,^ 
yet  this  had  been  achieved  only  recently  and  but 
incompletely. 

We  find,  therefore,  that  the  alliance  of  Episco- 
palians and  Dissenters  against  the  dominant  clergy 
and  the  Federalists  was  the  key  to  internal  politics 
at  the  opening  of  otir  period.  "The  old  political 
distinctions,"  wrote  the  editor  of  the  Vermont 
Journal,    "seem  to  have  given  place   to  religious 

^  Schouler,    United  States,    II.,    282,    511,    III.,    52;    Adams, 
United  States,  IX.,  133. 
^  Fearon,  Sketclies  of  America,  114. 


i8  RISE   OF  THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

ones."  But  the  religious  contentions  were  so 
closely  interwoven  with  the  struggle  of  New  Eng- 
land's democracy  to  throw  off  the  control  of  the 
established  classes,  that  the  contest  was  in  reality 
rather  more  political  and  social  than  religious.  By 
her  constitutional  convention  of  1818,  Connecticut 
practically  disestablished  the  Congregational  church 
and  did  away  with  the  old  manner  of  choosing  as- 
sistants.* In  the  election  of  1820  the  Republican 
candidate  for  governor  was  elected  by  a  decisive 
vote,  and  all  of  Connecticut's  representation  in 
the  lower  house  of  Congress  was  Republican,'  al- 
though, in  1 81 6,  the  Federalist  candidate  had  been 
chosen  by  a  small  majority.^  New  Hampshire's 
toleration  act  was  passed  in  181 9,  but  she  had 
achieved  her  revolution  as  early  as  1816,  when  a' 
union  of  the  anti  -  Congregational  denominations 
with  the  Republicans  destroyed  the  ascendency  of 
the  Federalists  and  tried  to  break  that  party's  con- 
trol of  the  educational  centre  at  Dartmouth  College.'* 
The  contest  was  not  so  clearly  marked  in  Massa- 
chusetts as  in  the  other  states,  for  the  old  centres 
of  Congregational  power,  notably  Harvard  College, 
had  already  begun  to  feel  the  liberalizing  influence 
of  the  Unitarian  movement.     Congregationalism  in 

•  Baldwin,  "The  Three  Constitutions  of  Conn.,"  in  New  Haven 
Colony  Hist.  See,  Papers,  V.,  210-214. 

^  Niks'  Register,  XVUI..  128. 
'Adams,  United  States,  IX.,  133. 

*  F.  B.  Sanborn,  New  Hampshire,  251  et  seq.;  Barstow,  New 
Hampshire,  chaps,  xi.,  xii.;   Plumer,  William  Plumer,  437-460. 


1833]  NEW   ENGLAND  19 

Massachusetts  divided  into  warring  camps*  and  was 
not  in  a  position  to  exercise  the  political  power  it 
had  shown  in  other  states  of  New  England.  The 
discussion  in  that  state  between  the  Unitarian 
and  orthodox  wings  of  the  Congregational  churches 
tended,  on  the  whole,  to  moderate  the  extreme 
views  of  each,  as  well  as  to  prevent  their  united 
domination.  In  her  constitutional  convention  of 
1820,  Massachusetts  refused  to  do  away  with  the 
advantage  which  the  Congregational  church  had  in 
the  matter  of  pubHc  support,  and  it  was  not  until 
1833  that  the  other  denominations  secured  the  com- 
plete separation  of  church  and  state.  The  moder- 
ate attitude  of  the  Federalists  of  the  state  length- 
ened their  tenure  of  power.  Governor  Brooks, 
elected  by  the  FederaHsts  in  181  y,  was  a  friend  of 
Monroe,  and  a  moderate  who  often  took  Republi- 
cans for  his  counsellors,  a  genuine  representative  of 
what  has  been  aptly  termed  the  "  Indian  summer 
of  Federalism  in  Massachusetts." 

The  Republican  party  controlled  the  other  states 
of  the  section,  but  there  was  in  New  England,  as 
a  whole,  a  gradual  decline  and  absorption,  rather 
than  a  destruction,  of  the  Federalist  party,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  marked  internal  political  differences 
constituted  a  basis  for  subsequent  political  con- 
flicts. Just  before  he  took  his  seat  in  Congress  in 
1823,  Webster  lamented  to  Judge  Story  that  New 
England  did  not  get  out  of  the  "dirty  squabble  of 
*  Walker,  Cong.  Churches  in  the  U.  5.,  303-308. 


20  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

local  politics,  and  assert  her  proper  character  and 
consequence."  "We  are  disgraced,"  he  said,  "be- 
yond help  or  hope  by  these  things.  There  is  a 
Federal  interest,  a  Democratic  interest,  a  bankrupt 
interest,  an  orthodox  interest,  and  a  middling  in- 
terest; but  I  see  no  national  interest,  nor  any 
national  feeling  in  the  whole  matter."* 

In  general,  northern  New  England — Maine,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Vermont — showed  a  distinct  ten- 
dency towards  Democracy;  in  southern  New  Eng- 
land the  fortifications  of  Federalism  and  Congrega- 
tional power  lay  in  a  wide  belt  along  the  Connecticut 
River,  while  along  the  sea-coast  and  in  the  Berk- 
shire region  the  Democratic  forces  showed  strength. 

From  the  outlying  rural  forces,  where  Democracy 
was  strong,  the  settlement  of  New  -  Englanders  in 
the  middle  west  was  to  come.  To  Timothy  Dwight, 
the  president  of  Yale,  who  voiced  the  extreme  con- 
servatism of  Federal  New  England,  the  pioneers 
seemed  unable  to  live  in  regular  society.  "They 
are  impatient  of  the  restraints  of  law,  religion,  and 
morality ;  grumble  about  the  taxes,  by  which  Rulers, 
^Ministers,  and  School-masters,  are  supported;  and 
complain  incessantly,  as  well  as  bitterly,  of  the 
extortions  of  mechanics,  farmers,  merchants,  and 
physicians;  to  whom  they  are  always  indebted.  At 
the  same  time,  they  are  usually  possessed,  in  their 
own  view,  of  uncommon  wisdom;  understand  medi- 
cal science,  politics,  and  religion,  better  than  those, 
'  McMaster,  Webster,  99. 


1830]  NEW   ENGLAND  21 

who  have  studied  them  through  Hfe."  These  rest- 
less men,  with  nothing  to  lose,  who  were  delighted 
with  innovation,  were,  in  his  judgment,  of  the  type 
that  had  ruined  Greece  and  Rome.  "In  mercy, 
therefore,"  exclaimed  Dwight,  "to  the  sober,  in- 
dustrious, and  well  -  disposed  inhabitants.  Provi- 
dence has  opened  in  the  vast  western  wilderness 
a  retreat,  sufficiently  alluring  to  draw  them  away 
from  the  land  of  their  nativity.  We  have  many 
troubles  even  now;  but  we  should  have  many  more, 
if  this  body  of  foresters  had  remained  at  home."  ' 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  feature  of  New  Eng- 
land life  was  its  organization  into  communities. 
What  impressed  the  traveller  from  other  sections 
or  from  the  Old  World  was  partly  the  small  farms, 
divided  into  petty  fields  by  stone  fences,  but,  above 
all,  "  the  clustering  of  habitations  in  villages  instead 
of  dispersing  them  at  intervals  of  a  mile  over  the 
country."  The  spires  of  the  white  churches  of 
separate  hamlets  dotted  the  landscape.  Simple 
comfort  and  thrift  were  characteristic  of  the  region. 
"Here,"  wrote  a  Virginia  planter,  travelling  in  New 
England  in  the  early  thirties,  "is  not  apparent  a 
hundredth  part  of  the  abject  squalid  poverty  that 
our  State  presents."  ^ 

The  morale  of  New  England  was  distinctive. 
Puritanism  had  founded  the  section,  and  two  cen- 
turies of  Calvinistic  discipline  had  moulded  the  New 

•  Dwight,  Travels,  II.,  458-463. 

*  "Minor's  Journal,"  in  Atlantic  Monthly,  XXVI.,  333. 


22  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

England  conscience.  That  serious  self-conscious- 
ness, that  self-scrutiny,  almost  morbid  at  times,  by 
which  the  Puritan  tried  to  solve  the  problem  of  his 
personal  salvation,  to  determine  whether  he  was 
of  the  elect,*  was  accompanied  by  an  almost  equal 
anxiety  concerning  the  conduct  of  his  neighbors. 
The  community  life  of  New  England  emphasized 
this  trait. 

Tudor,  who  was  not  friendly  to  the  ideals  of  the 
"land  of  steady  habits,"  criticised  "the  narrowing 
influence  of  local  policy,"  and  lamented  the  "sort 
of  habitual,  pervading  police,  made  up  of  Calvinistic 
inquisition  and  village  scrutiny"  in  Connecticut.^ 
Not  to  be  one's  brother's  keeper  and  not  to  assent 
to  the  dictates  of  community  sentiment  were  in- 
dications of  moral  laxity.  This  long  training  in 
theological  inquiry,  this  continued  emphasis  upon 
conduct,  and  this  use  of  community  sentiment  as 
a  means  of  enforcing  certain  moral  and  political 
ideals,  led  the  Ncw-Englandcr  to  war  with  opposing 
conceptions  wherever  he  went. 

A  test  of  the  ideals  of  New  England  is  found  in 
the  attitude  of  those  who  spread  into  new  regions. 
The  migrating  Yankee  was  a  reformer.  A  con- 
siderable proportion  of  the  New  -  Englanders  who 
left  the  section  were  "  come-outers "  in  religion  as 
in  politics ;  many  of  the  Vcrmonters  and  the  pioneers 
who  went  west  were  radicals.     But  the  majority  of 

"  Wendell,  Cotton  Matlicr,  6. 

^  Tudor,  Letters  on  the  Eastern  States  (ed.  of  1821),  60. 


1830]  NEW   ENGLAND  23 

these  dissenters  from  the  estabHshed  order  carried 
with  them  a  Ixjdy  of  ideas  regarding  conduct  and 
a  way  of  looking  at  the  world  that  were  deeply  in- 
fluenced by  their  old  Puritan  training.  If,  indeed, 
they  revolted  from  the  older  type  of  Calvinism  in 
the  freer  air  of  a  new  country,  they  were,  by  this 
sudden  release  from  restraint,  likely  to  develop 
"isms"  of  their  own,  which  revealed  the  strong 
underlying  forces  of  religious  thinking.  Lacking 
the  restraining  influence  of  the  old  Congregational 
system,  some  of  them  contented  themselves  with 
placing  greater  emphasis  upon  emotional  religion 
and  eagerly  embraced  membership  in  churches  like 
the  Baptist  or  Methodist,  or  accepted  fellowship 
with  Presbyterians  and  welcomed  the  revival  spirit 
of  the  western  churches. 

Others  used  their  freedom  to  proclaim  a  new  order 
of  things  in  the  religious  world.  Most  noteworthy 
was  Mormonism,  which  was  founded  by  a  migrating 
New  England  family  and  was  announced  and  reach- 
ed its  first  success  among  the  New  -  Englanders  of 
New  York  and  Ohio.  Antimasonry  and  spiritual- 
ism flourished  in  the  Greater  New  England  in  which 
these  emancipated  Puritans  settled.  Wherever  the 
New-Englander  went  he  was  a  leader  in  reform,  in 
temperance  crusades,  in  abolition  of  slavery,  in 
Bible  societies,  in  home  missions,  in  the  evangeli- 
zation of  the  west,  in  the  promotion  of  schools,  and 
in  the  establishment  of  sectarian  colleges. 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  elements  in  the  dis- 


24  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

integration  of  the  old  Congregationalism  in  New 
England  itself,  however,  were  furnished  by  the  Uni- 
tarians and  the  Universalists.  For  nearly  a  genera- 
tion the  liberal  movement  in  religion  had  been  pro- 
gressing. The  Unitarian  revolt,  of  which  Channing 
was  the  most  important  leader,  laid  its  emphasis 
upon  conduct  rather  than  upon  a  plan  of  salvation 
by  atonement.  In  place  of  original  sin  and  total 
depravity,  it  came  more  and  more  to  put  stress  upon 
the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  dignity  of  man.  The 
new  optimism  of  this  faith  was  carried  in  still  an- 
other direction  by  the  Universalist  movement,  with 
its  gospel  of  universal  salvation.* 

The  strength  of  the  Unitarian  movement  was 
confined  to  a  limited  area  about  Boston,  but  within 
its  own  sphere  of  influence  it  contested  successfully 
with  the  old  Congregational  power,  captured  Har- 
vard College,  and  caught  the  imaginations  of  large 
numbers  of  the  best  educated  and  prosperous  classes 
of  the  community.  Attempting  to  adjust  them- 
selves between  the  old  order  of  things  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  new  forces  of  evangelism  and  lib- 
eralism on  the  other,  another  great  body  of  Con- 
gregationalists  found  a  middle  ground  in  a  move- 
ment of  modified  Calvinism,  which  sustained  the 
life  of  Congregationalism  in  large  areas  of  New 
England.  By  these  movements  of  conflict  and  re- 
adjustment, whatever  of  unity  the  older  Congrega- 
tional faith  had  possessed  was  gradually  broken 
'  Cf.  Babcock,  Atn.  Nationality  (Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap.  xi. 


1831]  NEW   ENGLAND  25 

tlovvn  and  a  renaissance  of  religious  and  moral  ideas 
was  ushered  in. 

This  change  was  soon  to  find  expression  in  a  new 
literary  movement  in  New  England,  a  movement 
in  which  poetry  and  prose  were  to  take  on  a  cheer- 
ful optimism,  a  joy  in  life,  and  an  idealism.  This 
new  literature  reflected  the  influence  of  the  Unitari- 
an movement,  the  influence  of  European  romantic 
literature,  and  the  influence  of  German  philosophy. 
Before  long  the  Transcendentalists  proclaimed  the 
new  idealism  that  was  showing  itself  about  Bos- 
ton.' Bryant,  Longfellow,  Whittier,  Hawthorne, 
and  Emerson  were  all  prophesied  in  the  forces  of 
intellectual  change  that  now  spread  over  the  sec- 
tion. 

Even  New  England's  statesmen  were  deeply  in- 
fluenced by  the  literary  spirit.  Daniel  Webster, 
although  the  son  of  a  New  Hampshire  pioneer 
whose  log  cabin  was  on  the  edge  of  the  vast  forest 
that  stretched  north  to  Canada,  had  w^on  an  educa- 
tion at  the  "little  college"  at  Dartmouth;  and,  after 
his  removal  to  Boston,  he  captivated  New  England 
by  his  noble  commemorative  orations  and  enriched 
his  arguments  before  the  courts  by  the  splendor  of 
his  style.  He  united  the  strong,  passionate  nature 
of  his  backwoods  father  with  a  mind  brought  under 
the  influences  of  the  cultured  society  of  Boston. 
John  Quincy  Adams,  also,  had  been  professor  of 
rhetoric  and  oratory  at  Harvard,  and  he  found  in 

'  Wendell,  Literary  Hist,  of  America,  book  V.,  chaps,  iv.,  v. 


26  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

the  classics  a  solace  when  the  political  world  grew 
dark  around  him.  Edward  Everett  represented 
even  more  clearly  the  union  of  the  man  of  letters 
with  the  political  leader.  If  we  except  the  brill- 
iant but  erratic  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  no 
statesman  from  other  sections  showed  this  impress 
of  literature. 

While  these  forces  were  developing,  a  liberaliz- 
ing of  the  colleges,  and  particularly  of  Harvard,  by 
the  introduction  of  new  courses  in  literature  and 
science,  was  in  progress.  Reform  movements,  de- 
signed to  give  fuller  expression  to  common-school 
public  education,  began,  and  already  in  182 1  Bos- 
ton had  established  the  first  English  high -school, 
precursor  of  a  movement  of  profound  importance  in 
the  uplifting  of  the  masses.  Lyceums  and  special 
schools  for  the  laborers  flourished  in  the  new  cen- 
tres of  manufacturing.  The  smaller  educational 
centres,  like  Dartmouth,  Bowdoin,  Amherst,  and 
Williams,  where  the  farmer  boys  of  New  England 
worked  their  way  through  college,  sent  out  each 
year  men  to  other  sections  to  become  leaders  at  the 
bar,  in  the  pulpit,  in  the  press,  and  in  the  newer 
colleges.  The  careers  of  Amos  Kendall,  Prentiss, 
and  Seward  illustrate  these  tendencies.  In  short. 
New  England  was  training  herself  to  be  the  school- 
mistress of  the  nation.  Her  abiding  power  was  to 
lie  in  the  influence  which  she  exerted  in  letters,  in 
education,  and  in  reform.  She  was  to  find  a  new 
life  and  a  larger  sphere  of  activity  in  the  wide-spread 


1830]  NEW    ENGLAND  27 

western  communities  which  were  already  invaded 
by  her  sons.  In  furnishing  men  of  talent  in  these 
fields  she  was  to  have  an  influence  out  of  all  relation 
to  her  population.* 

•  Century  Mag.,  XL VI I.,  43. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    MIDDLE    REGION 
(1820-1830) 

THE  middle  states  formed  a  zone  of  transition 
between  the  east  and  the  west,  the  north  and 
the  south. ^  Geographically,  they  lay  on  the  line  of 
the  natural  routes  between  the  Atlantic  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  Ohio  and  the  Great  Lakes  on  the 
other. ^  The  waters  of  the  Susquehanna,  rising  near 
the  lake  region  of  central  New  York,  flowed  to 
Chesapeake  Bay,  which  opened  into  the  Atlantic  far 
down  Virginia's  coast -line.  The  Great  Valley  ran 
through  eastern  Pennsylvania,  across  Maryland, 
and,  in  the  form  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  made 
a  natural  highway  to  the  interior  of  North  Carolina. 
New  York  City  and  Philadelphia  saw  in  an  intimate 
connection  with  the  rising  west  the  pledge  of  their 
prosperity;  and  Baltimore,  which  was  both  a  me- 
tropolis of  the  south  and  of  the  middle  region,  ex- 

*  For  earlier  discussions  of  the  middle  colonies  and  states,  see 
Tyler,  England  in  America,  chap,  xvii.;  Andrews,  Colonial  Self- 
Covernment,  chaps,  v.,  vii.,  xviii.,  xix. ;  Greene,  Provincial 
America,  chaps,  xvi.-xviii.  {Am.  Nation,  IV.,  V.,  VI.) 

^Gallatin,  Writings,  III.,  49;  Clinton,  in  Laws  of  the  State  of 
N.  Y.  in  Relation  to  Erie  and  Champlain  Canals,  I.,  140. 


1830]  MIDDLE    REGION  29 

tended  her  trade  north  to  central  New  York,  west 
to  the  Ohio,  and  south  into  Virginia,  and,  like  her 
rivals,  sent  her  fleets  to  garner  the  commercial  har- 
vest of  the  sea. 

In  the  composition  of  its  population,  also,  the 
middle  region  was  a  land  of  transitions  between 
sections,  and  a  prototype  of  the  modern  United 
States,  composite  in  its  nationality.  In  New  York 
an  influential  Dutch  element  still  remained;  the 
New  England  settlers  had  colonized  the  western 
half  of  the  state  and  about  equalled  the  native 
population.  In  Pennsylvania,  Germans  and  Scotch- 
Irishmen  had  settled  in  such  numbers  in  the  course 
of  the  eighteenth  century  that,  by  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  her  population  was  almost  evenly  di- 
vided between  these  stocks  and  the  English.^  There 
was  also  a  larger  proportion  of  recent  immigrants 
than  in  any  other  state,  for  by  1830  Pennsylvania 
had  one  unnaturalized  alien  to  every  fifty  inhabi- 
tants. 

Following  the  Great  Valley  in  the  middle  of  the 
same  century,  the  Scotch-Irish  and  German  settlers 
had  poured  into  the  up-country  of  the  south,  so 
that  these  interior  counties  of  Virginia  and  the 
Carolinas  were  like  a  peninsula  thrust  down  from 
Pennsylvania  into  the  south,  with  economic,  racial, 
social,  and  religious  connections  which  made  an 
intimate  bond  between  the  two  sections.     A  multi- 

*  See  Lincoln,  Revolutionary  Movement  in  Pa.,  in  University 
of  Pa.,  Publications,  I.,  24,  35. 


30  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

tude  of  religious  sects  flourished  in  tolerant  Penn- 
sylvania, and  even  the  system  of  local  government 
was  a  combination  of  the  New  England  town  and 
the  southern  county. 

This  region,  therefore,  was  essentially  a  mediat- 
ing, transitional  zone,  including  in  its  midst  an 
outlying  New  England  and  a  west,  and  lacking  the 
essential  traits  of  a  separate  section.  It  was  funda- 
mentally national  in  its  physiography,  its  composi- 
tion, and  its  ideals — a  fighting-ground  for  political 
issues  which  found  their  leaders  in  the  other  sections. 

Compared  with  New  England,  the  middle  region 
was  a  rapidly  growing  section.  The  population  of 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  Dela- 
ware combined  was  about  two  and  three-quarter 
millions  in  1820,  and  three  and  two-third  millions 
in  1830.  By  that  date  New  York  alone  balanced 
all  New  England  in  the  number  of  its  people.  But 
it  was  its  western  half  that  permitted  this  growth  of 
the  middle  section.  During  the  decade  1 820-1 830, 
New  York  west  of  Oneida  Lake  increased  in  popu- 
lation by  a  percentage  more  than  twice  as  great, 
and  by  an  amount  almost  as  great,  as  that  of  the 
populous  eastern  half  of  the  state.  By  the  end  of 
the  decade,  about  one-third  of  Pennsylvania's  popu- 
lation was  found  west  of  her  central  counties.  At 
that  time  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  became  the 
most  populous  states  in  the  Union.  Virginia  and 
Massachusetts,  which  in  1790  held  the  lead,  had 
now  fallen  to  third  and  eighth  place  respectively. 


1830]  MIDDLE   REGION  31 

New  Jersey,  meanwhile,  lagged  far  behind,  and  Del- 
aware's rate  of  increase  was  only  five  and  one- half 
per  cent. 

In  1829  a  member  of  the  Virginia  constitutional 
convention  asked:  "Do  gentlemen  really  believe, 
that  it  is  owing  to  any  diversity  in  the  principles  of 
the  State  Governments  of  the  two  states,  that  New 
York  has  advanced  to  be  the  first  state  in  the 
Union,  and  that  Virginia,  from  being  the  first,  is 
now  the  third,  in  wealth  and  population?  Virginia 
ceded  away  her  Kentucky,  to  form  a  new  state; 
and  New  York  has  retained  her  Genessee — there  lies 
the  whole  secret."  ' 

In  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century 
and  the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  the  New 
York  lands  beyond  the  sources  of  the  Mohawk  had 
been  taken  up  by  a  colonization  characteristically 
western.  New  England  farmers  swarmed  into  the 
region,  hard  on  the  heels  of  the  retreating  Indians. 
Scarcely  more  than  a  decade  before  1820  western 
New  York  presented  typically  frontier  conditions. 
The  settlers  felled  and  burned  the  forest,  built  lit- 
tle towns,  and  erected  mills,  and  now,  with  a  sur- 
plus of  agricultural  products,  they  were  suffering 
from  the  lack  of  a  market  and  were  demanding 
transportation  facilities.  Some  of  their  lumber  and 
flour  found  its  way  by  the  lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence 
to  Montreal,  a  portion  went  by  rafts  down  the  Alle- 
gheny to  the  waters  of  the  Ohio,  and  some  descend- 

*  Va.  Constitutional  Convention,  Debates  (1829-1830),  405. 

VOL.    XIV. — 4 


32  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1817 

ed  the  upper  tributaries  of  the  Susquehanna  and 
found  an  outlet  in  Baltimore  or  Philadelphia;  but 
these  routes  were  unreliable  and  expensive,  and  by 
one  of  them  trade  was  diverted  from  the  United 
States  to  Canada.  There  was  a  growing  demand 
for  canals  that  should  give  economic  unity  to  New 
York  and  turn  the  tide  of  her  interior  commerce 
along  the  Mohawk  and  Lake  Champlain  into  the 
waters  of  the  Hudson  and  so  to  the  harbor  of  New 
York  City.  The  Erie  and  the  Champlain  canals 
were  the  outcome  of  this  demand. 

It  is  the  glory  of  De  Witt  Clinton  that  he  saw 
the  economic  revolution  which  the  Erie  Canal  would 
work,  and  that  he  was  able  to  present  clearly  and 
effectively  the  reasons  which  made  the  undertaking 
practicable  and  the  financial  plan  which  made  it 
possible.  He  persuaded  the  legislature  by  the  vis- 
ion of  a  greater  Hudson  River,  not  only  reaching 
to  the  western  confines  of  the  state,  but  even,  by 
its  connection  with  Lake  Erie,  stretching  through 
two  thousand  miles  of  navigable  lakes  and  rivers 
to  the  very  heart  of  the  interior  of  the  United  States. 
To  him  the  Erie  Canal  was  a  political  as  well  as  an 
economic  undertaking.  "  As  a  bond  of  union  be- 
tween the  Atlantic  and  western  states,"  he  declared, 
"it  may  prevent  the  dismemberment  of  the  Ameri- 
can empire.  As  an  organ  of  communication  between 
the  Hudson,  the  Mississippi,  the  St.  Lawrence,  the 
great  lakes  of  the  north  and  west,  and  their  tributary 
rivers,  it  will  create  the  greatest  inland  trade  ever 


i82sl  MIDDLE   REGION  33 

witnessed.  The  most  fertile  and  extensive  regions 
of  America  will  avail  themselves  of  its  facilities  for 
a  market.  All  their  surplus  productions,  whether 
of  the  soil,  the  forest,  the  mines,  or  the  water,  their 
fabrics  of  art  and  their  supplies  of  foreign  com- 
modities, will  concentrate  in  the  city  of  New- York, 
for  transportation  abroad  or  consumption  at  home. 
Agriculture,  manufactures,  commerce,  trade,  navi- 
gation, and  the  arts,  will  receive  a  correspondent 
encouragement.  That  city  will,  in  the  course  of 
time  become  the  granary  of  the  world,  the  em- 
porium of  commerce,  the  seat  of  manufactures,  the 
focus  of  great  moneyed  operations,  and  the  concen- 
trating point  of  vast,  disposable,  and  accumulating 
capitals,  which  will  stimulate,  enliven,  extend,  and 
reward  the  exertions  of  human  labor  and  ingenuity, 
in  all  their  processes  and  exhibitions.  And  before 
the  revolution  of  a  century,  the  whole  island  of  Man- 
hattan, covered  with  habitations  and  replenished  with 
a  dense  population,  will  constitute  one  vast  city."  ^ 

Sanguine  as  were  Clinton's  expectations,  the 
event  more  than  justified  his  confidence.  By  1825 
the  great  canal  system,  reaching  by  way  of  Lake 
Champlain  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  by  way  of  the 
Mohawk  and  the  lakes  of  central  New  York  to  Lake 
Erie,  was  opened  for  traffic  throughout  its  whole 
length.  The  decrease  in  transportation  charges 
brought  prosperity  and  a  tide  of  population  into 
western  New  York;  villages  sprang  up  along  the 
»  View  of  tlie  Grand  Canal  (N.  Y.,  1825),  20, 


34  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1830 

whole  line  of  the  canal ;  the  water-power  was  utilized 
for  manufactures;  land  values  in  the  western  part 
of  the  state  doubled  and  in  many  cases  quadrupled ; 
farm  produce  more  than  doubled  in  value.  Buffalo 
and  Rochester  became  cities.*  The  raw  products  of 
the  disappearing  forests  of  western  New  York — lum- 
ber, staves,  pot  and  pearl  ashes,  etc.,  and  the  grow- 
ing surplus  of  agricultural  products,  began  to  flow 
in  increasing  volume  down  this  greater  Hudson 
River  to  New  York  City.  The  farther  w^est  was 
also  turning  its  streams  of  commerce  into  this 
channel.  The  tolls  of  the  canal  system  were  over 
half  a  million  dollars  immediately  upon  its  comple- 
tion; for  1830  they  were  over  a  million  dollars.' 
By  1833  the  annual  value  of  the  products  sent  by 
way  of  the  Erie  and  Champlain  canals  was  estimated 
at  thirteen  million  dollars.^  At  the  close  of  this 
decade  the  Ohio  system  of  canals,  inspired  by  the 
success  of  the  Erie  Canal,  had  rendered  a  large  area 
of  that  state  tributary  to  New  York.  The  Great 
Lake  navigation  grew  steadily,  the  Western  Reserve 
increased  its  population,  and  the  harbor  of  Cleve- 
land became  a  centre  of  trade. 

The  effect  of  all  this  upon  New  York  City  was 

*  J.  Winden,  Influence  of  the  Erie  Canal  (MS.  Thesis,  Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin);  U.  S.  Census  of  1900,  Population,  I.,  430, 
432;  Callander,  in  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  XVII.,  22; 
Hulbert,  Historic  Highways,  XIV.,  chap.  v. 

'  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  135;  Canal  Commissioners  of 
N.Y.,  Report  (January  17,  1833),  App.  A. 

'  Pitkin,  Statistical  View  (ed.  of  1835),  577. 


1830]  MIDDLE    REGION  35 

revolutionary.  Its  population  increased  from  123,- 
000  in  1820  to  202,000  in  1830.  Its  real  and  per- 
sonal estate  rose  in  value  from  about  seventy  million 
dollars  in  1820  to  about  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  million  dollars  in  1830.*  The  most  significant 
result  of  the  canal  was  the  development  of  the  com- 
merce of  New  York  City,  which  rose  from  a  market 
town  for  the  Hudson  River  to  be  the  metropolis  of 
the  north.  The  value  of  the  imports  of  New  York 
state  in  182 1  was  twenty-four  million  dollars;  in 
1825,  the  year  of  the  completion  of  the  canal,  it  was 
fifty  million  dollars.  This  was  an  exceptional  year, 
however,  and  in  1830  the  value  of  the  imports  was 
thirty-six  million  dollars.  In  182 1  New  York  had 
thirty-eight  per  cent,  of  the  total  value  of  imports 
into  the  United  States;  in  1825,  over  fifty  per  cent. ; 
and  this  proportion  she  maintained  during  our 
period.  In  the  exports  of  domestic  origin.  New 
York  was  surpassed  in  1819  by  Louisiana,  and  in 
1820  by  South  Carolina,  but  thereafter  the  state 
took  and  held  the  lead.^  In  1823  the  amount  of 
flour  sent  from  the  western  portion  of  New  York  by 
the  Erie  Canal  equalled  the  whole  amount  which 
reached  New  Orleans  from  the  Mississippi  Valley 
in  that  year.^    The  state  of  New  York  had  by  a 

'  U.  S.  Census  of  1900,  Population,  I.,  432;  MacGregor,  Com- 
mercial Statistics   of  America,    145. 

^  Compiled  from  Pitkin,  Statistical  View. 

^  Based  on  statistics  in  Report  on  Internal  Commerce,  1887,  p. 
196;  Canal  Commissioners  of  N.  Y.,  Annual  Report  (February 
20,  1824),  35. 


36  RISE   OF   THP:    NEW   WEST  [1820 

stroke  achieved  economic  unity,  and  its  metrop- 
olis at  once  became  the  leading  city  of  the  coun- 
try. 
-. »  Philadelphia  lost  power  as  New  York  City  gained 
'  it.  Though  the  counties  tributary  to  Philadelphia 
constituted  the  old  centre  of  population  and  politi- 
cal power,  the  significant  fact  of  gro\\i:h  in  Pennsyl- 
vania was  the  increasing  importance  of  Pittsburg  at 
the  gateway  to  the  Ohio  Valley.  In  the  Great  Val- 
ley beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  lived  the  descendants 
of  those  early  Germans  and  Scotch-Irishmen  who 
early  occupied  the  broad  and  level  fields  of  this 
fertile  zone,  the  granary  of  Pennsylvania.  Beyond 
this  rock-walled  valley  lay  the  mountains  in  the  west 
and  north  of  the  state,  their  little  valleys  occupied 
by  farmers,  but  already  giving  promise  of  the  rich 
yield  of  iron  and  coal  on  which  the  future  greatness 
of  the  state  was  to  rest.  The  anthracite  mines  of 
the  northeastern  corner  of  the  state,  which  have 
given  to  their  later  possessors  such  influence  over 
the  industries  of  the  country,  were  just  coming  into 
use.  The  iron  ores  of  the  middle  mountain  counties 
found  their  way  to  the  forges  at  Pittsburg.  Al- 
ready the  bituminous  coals  of  the  western  counties 
were  serving  to  generate  steam-power  for  the  mills 
upon  the  upper  waters  of  the  Ohio,  but,  as  yet,  the 
iron  manufacturers  of  the  state  depended  on  the 
abundant  forests  for  the  production  of  coke  for 
smelting. 
The  problem  of  transportation  pressed  hard  upon 


1830]  MIDDLE   REGION  37 

Pennsylvania  from  the  beginning.  While  Phila- 
delphia was  obliged  to  contest  with  Baltimore  the 
possession  of  the  eastern  half  of  the  state,  she  saw 
the  productions  of  the  western  counties  descending 
the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans.  Even  the 
trade  in  manufactured  goods  which  she  had  formerly 
sent  to  the  western  rivers  was  now  menaced  from 
two  quarters:  the  development  of  steam  navigation 
on  the  Mississippi  enabled  New  Orleans  to  compete 
for  this  trade;  and  the  construction  of  the  Erie 
Canal,  with  the  projected  system  of  tributary  canals 
in  Ohio,  made  it  plain  to  Pennsylvania  that  New 
York  was  about  to  wTest  from  her  the  markets  of 
the  west.  It  had  taken  thirty  days  and  cost  five 
dollars  a  hundred  pounds  to  transport  goods  from 
Philadelphia  to  Columbus,  Ohio;  the  same  arti- 
cles could  be  brought  in  twenty  days  from  New 
York,  by  the  Erie  Canal,  at  a  cost  of  two  dollars 
and  a  half  a  hundred.*  To  Pennsylvania  the  con- 
trol of  the  western  market,  always  an  important 
interest,  had  led  in  1800  to  the  construction  of  a 
system  of  turnpikes  to  connect  Philadelphia  with 
Pittsburg  over  the  mountains,  which  developed  a 
great  wagon  trade.  But  the  days  of  this  wagon 
trade  were  now  numbered,  for  the  National  Road, 
joining  the  Ohio  and  the  Potomac  and  passing  south 
of  Pittsburg,  diverted  a  large  share  of  this  overland 
trade  to  Baltimore.  The  superior  safety,  rapidi- 
ty, and  cheapness  of  canal  communication  showed 

*  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  136. 


38  RISE   OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1820 

Pennsylvania  that  she  must  adjust  her  transporta- 
tion to  the  new  conditions. 

The  way  was  prepared  by  the  experience  of  cor- 
porations attempting  to  reach  the  coal-fields  of 
northeastern  Pennsylvania.  In  1820  practically  the 
whole  output  from  the  anthracite  fields  came  from 
the  Lehigh  Valley  and  amounted  to  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  tons — an  equivalent  of  one  for  each 
day  of  the  year.  By  the  end  of  the  decade  the 
output  of  the  anthracite  fields  was  about  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy -five  thousand  tons,  and  the  retail 
price  was  reduced  to  six  dollars  and  a  half  a  ton. 
Navigation  had  been  secured  by  the  coal  companies 
between  the  mines  and  Philadelphia  by  the  Schuyl- 
kill ;  the  Union  Canal  connected  the  Schuylkill  and 
Susquehanna,  and  New  York  City  was  supplied  by 
the  Delaware  Canal.* 

(This  activity  in  Pennsylvania  in  the  improvement 
of  navigation  so  far  had  been  the  work  of  corpora- 
tions; but  now,  with  the  growth  of  population  in 
the  west  and  the  completion  of  the  Erie  Canal,  a 
I  popular  demand  arose  for  state  construction  of 
^inland  waterways.  In  1825  the  legislature  passed 
an  act  under  which  an  extensive  system  of  canals 
was  begun,  to  connect  Philadelphia  with  Pittsburg, 
the  Allegheny  River  with  Lake  Erie,  and  Philadel- 
phia with  the  central  counties  of  New  York  at  the 


*  M'CuUoch,  Commercial  Dictionary  (ed.  of  1852), I., 366;  U.S. 
Census  of  1880,  IV.;  Worthington,  Finances  of  Pa. 


1830]  MIDDLE   REGION  39 

head  of  the  Susquehanna.*  Obstacles  speedily  de- 
veloped in  the  jealousies  of  the  various  sections  of 
the  state.  The  farmers  of  the  Great  Valley,  whose 
interests  lay  in  the  development  of  a  communica- 
tion with  Baltimore,  were  not  enthusiastic ;  the 
southern  counties  of  the  state,  along  the  line  of  the 
turnpikes,  found  their  interests  threatened ;  and  the 
citizens  of  the  northwestern  counties  were  unwilling 
to  postpone  their  demands  for  an  outlet  while  the 
trunk-line  was  building.  These  jealousies  furnish 
issues  for  the  politics  of  the  state  during  the  rest  of 
the  decade.^ 

Nevertheless,     Pennsylvania    was    growing    rich  | 
through  the  development  of  her  agriculture  and  her 
manufactures.     The  iron  industry  of  the  state  was  J 
the  largest  in  the  Union.     Although  the  industry 
was  only  in  its  infancy,  Pittsburg  was  already  pro- 
ducing or  receiving  a  large  part  of  the  pig-iron  that  I 
was  produced  in  Pennsylvania.     The  figures  of  the  ' 
census  of  1820  give  to  the  middle  states  over  forty 
per  cent,  of  the  product  of  pig-iron  and  castings  and 
wrought  iron  in  the  United  States,  the  value  of  the 
latter  article   for  Pennsylvania    being  one    million 
one  hundred  and  fifty-six  thousand  dollars  as  against 
four  hundred  and  seventy-two  thousand  dollars  for 
New  York.^     The  influence  of  this  industry  upon, 

'  See  chap,  xvii.,  below. 

^McCarthy,  Antimasonic  Party,  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report 
1902,  I.,  427. 

'  Secretary  of  Treasury,  Report,  1 854-1855,  p.  90. 


40  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

(Pennsylvania  politics  became  apparent  in  the  dis- 
(cussions  over  the  protective  tariff  during  the  decade. 
Together,  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  constituted 
a  region  dominated  by  interest  in  the  production  of 
grain  and  the  manufacture  of  iron.  Vast  as  was  the 
commerce  that  entered  the  port  of  New  York,  the 
capital  and  shipping  for  the  port  were  furnished  in 
part  by  New  England,  and  the  real  interest  of  the 
section  was  bound  up  with  the  developing  resources 
of  the  interior  of  the  nation. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  in  these  years  of 
entrance  upon  its  industrial  career,  the  middle  region 
was  also  the  scene  of  intellectual  movements  of  im- 
portance. These  were  the  days  when  the  Knicker- 
bocker school  in  New  York  brought  independence 
and  reputation  to  American  literature,  when  Irving, 
although  abroad,  worked  the  rich  mine  of  Hudson 
River  traditions,  and  Cooper  utilized  his  early  experi- 
ence in  the  frontier  around  Lake  Otsego  to  write  his 
"  Leatherstocking Tales."  Movements  for  social  ame- 
lioration abounded.  The  lighting  of  New  York  City 
and  Philadelphia  by  gas  diminished  crime.  Reform 
movements  with  regard  to  imprisonment  for  debt 
and  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  prisons, 
temperance  movements,  improvements  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  public  schools,  and  the  increase 
in  the  number  of  high-schools  were  all  indicative 
of  the  fact  that  this  new  democracy  was  not  un- 
responsive to  ideals.  Among  the  New  England 
element  of  western  New  York,  as  has  already  been 


1830]  MIDDLE    REGION  41 

pointed  out,  there  arose  some  of  the  most  interesting 
religious  and  political  movements  of  the  period, 
such  as  Mormonism,  Spiritualism,  and  Antimasonry. 
The  Presbyterians  and  Baptists  found  a  sympa- 
thetic constituency  in  the  new  regions.  It  is  easy 
to  see  that  the  traits  of  these  western  counties  of 
the  middle  states  were  such  that  idealistic  politi- 
cal movements,  as  antislavery,  would  find  in  them 
effective  support. 

Obviously,  the  political  traits  of  this  section 
would  have  a  significance  proportionate  to  the 
power  of  its  population  and  resources.  On  the"! 
whole,  the  middle  region  was  the  most  democratic 
section  of  the  seaboard,  but  it  was  managed  by  the 
politicians  under  a  system  of  political  bargaining 
for  the  spoils  of  office.  The  old  ascendency  which 
the  great  families  exercised  over  New  York  politics  * 
was  on  the  wane.  The  rise  of  the  western  half  of 
the  state  diminished  the  influence  of  the  successors 
to  the  patroons;  but,  nevertheless,  family  power 
continued  to  make  itself  felt,  and  a  group  of  new 
men  arose,  around  whom  factions  formed  and  dis 
solved  in  a  kaleidoscope  of  political  change. 

During  the  colonial  period,  executive  patronage 
and  land  grants  had  been  used  to  promote  the  in- 
terests of  the  men  in  power,  and  the  reaction  against 
executive  corruption  resulted  in  a  provision  in 
New  York's  constitution  of  1777  whereby  the  ex- 

*  Becker,  "  Nominations  in  Colonial  New  York  "  (Am.  Hist. 
Rev.,Yl.,  261). 


J 


42  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

ecutive  was  limited  by  the  Council  of  Appoint- 
ment. The  state  was  divided  into  four  districts, 
and  one  senator  from  each  was  selected  by  the 
House  of  Representatives  to  serve  in  this  council.* 
By  182 1  the  council  appointed  8287  military  officers 
and  6663  civil  officers.  Nearly  all  the  state  officers, 
all  the  mayors,  militia  officers,  and  justices  of  the 
peace  fell  under  its  control.^  This  concentration  of 
the  appointive  power  in  the  hands  of  the  dominant 
faction  brought  the  system  of  rotation  in  office,  and 
the  doctrine  that  to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils  of 
war,  to  a  climax.  It  led  to  the  building  up  of  politi- 
cal machines  by  the  use  of  offices,  from  the  lowest 
to  the  highest,  as  the  currency  for  political  trading. 
The  governor  was  checked,  but  the  leaders  of  the 
party  in  power  held  despotic  control  over  the  offices 
of  the  state. 

This  bargaining  was  facilitated  by  the  extension 
of  the  system  of  nominating  conventions.  From  the 
local  units  of  town  and  county  upwards,  the  custom 
of  sending  delegates  to  conventions  had  early  de- 
veloped in  the  state.  It  had  become  a  settled  prac- 
tice for  the  representatives  of  one  local  unit  to  agree 
with  those  of  another  regarding  the  order  in  which 
their  favorite  sons  should  receive  office.  Town  bar- 
gained with  town,  county  with  county,  district  with 
district.  In  place  of  the  system  of  control  by  the 
established  classes.  New  York's  democracy  was  learn- 

'  Fish,  Civil  Service,  87. 

'  Hammond,  Political  Parties  in  N.  Y.,  II.,  65. 


i82o]  MIDDLE   REGION  43 

ing  to  elaborate  the  machinery  of  nomination  by 
the  people;  but  in  the  process  there  was  devel- 
oped a  race  of  managing  politicians,  and  the  cam- 
paigns tended  to  become  struggles  between  personal 
elements  for  power  rather  than  contests  on  political) 
issues. 

The  finished  product  of  New  York  politics  is 
shown  in  Van  Buren,  the  devotee  of  "regularity" 
in  party  and  the  adroit  manager  of  its  machinery. 
Shrewdness,  tact,  and  self-reliant  judgment,  urbane 
good -humor,  mingled  with  a  suspicious  and  half- 
cynical  expression,  were  written  on  his  face.  "  Lit- 
tle Van"  was  an  affable,  firm,  and  crafty  politician. 
Although  he  was  not  a  creative  statesman,  neither 
was  he  a  mere  schemer.  He  had  definite  ideas,  if 
not  convictions,  of  the  proper  lines  of  policy,  and 
was  able  to  state  them  with  incisive  and  forcible 
argument  when  occasion  demanded.  To  him,  per- 
haps, more  than  to  any  other  of  the  politicians,  fell 
the  task  of  organizing  the  campaign  of  Crawford, 
and  afterwards  of  making  the  political  combinations 
that  brought  in  the  reign  of  Andrew  Jackson.  He 
was  the  leader  of  that  element  of  New  York  politics 
known  as  the  Bucktails,  from  the  emblem  worn  by 
the  Tammany  Society.  Clinton,  his  opponent,  ex- 
ercised an  influence  somewhat  akin  to  the  Living- 
stons, the  Schuylers,  the  Van  Rensselaers,  and  the 
other  great  family  leaders  in  the  baronial  days  of 
New  York  politics.  Brusque,  arrogant,  and  ambi- 
tious, he  combined  the  petty  enmities  of  a  domineer- 


44  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

ing  politician  with  flashes  of  statesman-like  insight, 
and  he  crushed  his  way  to  success  by  an  extermi- 
nating warfare  against  his  enemies.     Around  him 
gathered  a  personal  following  embracing  one  wing 
of  the  Republicans,  aided  by  a  large  fraction  of  the 
f  old  Federal  party.     For  the  most  part,  his  strength 
^  lay  along  the  line  of  the  Erie  Canal  and  in  the  re- 
gions where  the  New  England  element  was  strong. 
About  these  New  York  rivals  were  grouped  many 
lesser  lights,  for  the  political  organization  tended  to 
create  a  multitude  of  able  political  leaders,  many  of 
them  capable  of  holding  high  position,  but  few  of 
them  swayed  by  compelling  ideas  or  policies. 
{^  In  Pennsylvania,  where  the  spoils  system  and  the 
nominating    convention    developed    contemporane- 
ously with  the  movement  in  New  York,  there  were 
even  fewer  men  of  the  highest  political  rank.     Galla- 
tin's effective  career  belongs  to  an  earlier  period,  and 
he  had  no  successor,  as  a  national  figure,  among  the 
[Pennsylvania  party  chieftains. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    SOUTH 
(1820-1830) 

IN  the  decade  which  forms  the  subject  of  this 
volume,  no  section  underwent  more  far  -  reach- 
ing changes  than  did  the  group  of  South  Atlantic  . 
states  made  up  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  | 
and  Georgia,  with  which  this  chapter  will  deal  un- 
der the  name  of  the  south.  Then  it  was  that  the 
south  came  to  appreciate  the  effect  of  the  westward 
spread  of  the  cotton-plant  upon  slavery  and  politics. 

The  invention  of  the  cotton-gin  by  Eli  Whitney,^  H 
in  1793,  made  possible  the  profitable  cultivation  of    ' 
the  short-staple  variety  of  cotton.     Before  this,  the  J 
labor  of  taking  the  seeds  by  hand  from  this  variety, 
the  only  one  suited  to  production  in  the  uplands, 
had  prevented  its  use ;  thereafter,  it  was  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time- when  the  cotton  area,  no  longer  limited 
to  the  tidewater  region,  would  extend  to  the  interior, 
carrying  slavery  with  it.     This  invention  came  at  an 
opportune  time.     Already  the  inventions  of  Ark- 
wright,  Hargreaves,  and  Cartwright  had  worked  a 
revolution  in  the  textile  industries  of  England,  by 

^  Am.  Hist.  Review,  III.,  99. 


46  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

means  of  the  spinning-jenny,  the  power-loom,  and 
the  factory  system,  furnishing  machinery  for  the 
manufactiire  of  cotton  beyond  the  world's  supply.* 
P  Under  the  stimulus  of  this  demand  for  cotton, 
'  year  by  year  the  area  of  slavery  extended  towards 
(_the  west.  In  the  twenties,  many  of  the  southern 
counties  of  Virginia  were  attempting  its  cultivation ;' 
interior  counties  of  North  Carolina  were  combining 
cotton-raising  with  their  old  industries;  in  South 
Carolina  the  area  of  cotton  and  slavery  had  ex- 
tended up  the  rivers  well  beyond  the  middle  of  the 
state  ;^  while  in  Georgia  the  cotton  planters,  so  long 
restrained  by  the  Indian  line,  broke  through  the  bar- 
riers and  spread  over  the  newly  ceded  lands.^  The 
accompanying  table  shows  the  progress  of  this  crop: 
It  is  evident  from  the  figures  that  tidewater  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia  produced  practically  all  of  the 
cotton  crop  in  1791,  when  the  total  was  but  two 
million  pounds.  By  1821  the  old  south  produced 
one  hundred  and  seventeen  million  pounds,  and, 
five  years  later,  one  hundred  and  eighty  millions. 
But  how  rapidly  in  these  five  years  the  recently 
settled  southwest  was  overtaking  the  older  section 

•  M.  B.  Hammond,  Cotton  Industry,  chaps.  i.,ii.;  Von  Halle, 
"  Baumvvollproduktion,"  in  SchmoUer,  Stoats  und  Social-wissen- 
schaftliche  Forschnngen,  XV. 

'  Va.  Const.  Conv.,  Debates  (1829-  1830),  333,  336;  Martin, 
Gazetteer  of  Va.  and  D.  C.   (1836),  99. 

'  Schaper,  "  Sectionalism  and  Representation  in  S.  C,"  in  Am. 
Hist.  Assoc.  Report,  1900,  I.,  3S7-393. 

*  Phillips,  "Georgia  and  State  Rights,"  in  Ibid.,  1901,  II., 
140  (map). 


1830]  THE   SOUTH  47 

COTTON  CROP  (in  million  pounds)' 


1791 

1801 

l8lT 

1821 

1826 

18,34 

South  Carolina 

Georgia 

Virginia 

North  Carolina 

•5 

20.0 
10 .0 

4.0 

40.0 
20.0 

8.0 
7.0 

50.0 

4S-0 
12.0 
10. 0 

70.0 

75-0 
25.0 
10. 0 

65-5 
75-0 
10. 0 

9-5 

Total 

2  .0 

39 -o 

75-0 

117  .0 

180.0 

160  .0 

Tennessee.  .  .  . 

Louisiana 

Mississippi  .  .  . 

Alabama 

Florida 

Arkansas 

1 .0 

30 
2  .0 

20.0 
10. 0 
10. 0 
20.0 

45-0 
38.0 
20.0 
45-0 
2  .0 

•5 

4S-0 
62  .0 
85.0 
85.0 
20.0 
•5 

Total 

1 .0 

S-o 

60.0 

150-5 

297-5 

Grand  Total. 

2  .0 

40.0 

80.0 

177.0 

330-5 

457-5 

is  shown  by  its  total  of  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
millions.  By  1834  the  southwest  had  distanced  the 
older  section.  What  had  occurred  was  a  repeated 
westward  movement:  the  cotton-plant  first  spread 
from  the  sea  -  coast  to  the  uplands,  and  then,  by 
the  beginning  of  our  period,  advanced  to  the  Gulf 
plains,  until  that  region  achieved  supremacy  in  its 
production. 

How  deeply  the  section  was  interested  in  this  crop/] 
and  how  influential  it  was  in  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States,  appears  from  the  fact  that,  in  1820, 
the  domestic  exports  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia 

*  Based  on  MacGregor,  Commercial  Statistics,  462 ;  cf.  De  Bow's 
Review,  XVIL,  428;  Von  Halle,  Baumwollproduktion,  169;  Secre- 
tary of  Treasury,  Report,  1855-1856,  p.  116.  There  are  dis- 
crepancies; the  figures  are  to  be  taken  as  illustrative  rather  than 
exact;  e.  g.,  De  Bow  gives  seventy  million  pounds  for  Missis- 
sippi in  1826. 

*       VOL.    XIV. 5 


48  RISE   OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1820 

amounted  to  $15,215,000,  while  the  value  of  the 
I  whole  domestic  exports  for  all  the  rest  of  the  United 
\S^ates  was  $36,468,000.*  This,  however,  inadequate- 
ly represents  the  value  of  the  exports  from  these  two 
cotton  states,  because  a  large  fraction  of  the  cotton 
was  carried  by  the  coastwise  trade  to  northern  ports 
and  appeared  in  their  shipments.  Senator  William 
Smith,  of  South  Carolina,  estimated  that  in  181 8  the 
real  exports  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  amounted 
to  "more  than  half  as  much  as  that  of  the  other 
states  of  the  Union,  including  the  vast  and  fertile 
valley  of  the  Mississippi."  The  average  annual 
amount  of  the  exports  of  cotton,  tobacco,  and  rice 
from  the  United  States  between  1821  and  1830  was 
about  thirty-three  million  dollars,  while  all  other 
domestic  exports  made  a  sum  of  but  twenty  million 
dollars.^  Even  greater  than  New  England's  interest 
in  the  carrying-trade  was  the  interest  of  the  south 
in  the  exchange  of  her  great  staples  in  the  markets 
of  Europe. 

Never  in  history,  perhaps,  was  an  economic  force 
more  influential  upon  the  life  of  a  people.  As  the 
production  of  cotton  increased,  the  price  fell,  and 
the  seaboard  south,  feeling  the  competition  of  the 
virgin  soils  of  the  southwest,  saw  in  the  protective 
tariff  for  the  development  of  northern  manu- 
factures the  real  source  of  her  distress.  The 
price  of   cotton   was  in   these  years   a   barometer 

'  Pitkin,  Statistical  View  (ed.  of  1835),  p.  57. 
'Ibid.,  S18. 


1830]  THE   SOUTH  49 

of   southern   prosperity    and    of    southern    discon- 
tent.* t^ 
Even  more  important  than  the  effect  of  cotton  \ 
production  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  south  was 
its  effect  upon  her  social  system.     This  economic 
transformation  resuscitated   glavery  from  a  mori- 
bund condition  to  a  vigorous  and  aggressive  life. 
Slowly  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  came  to  realize 
that  the  burden  and  expense  of  slavery  as  the  labor 
system  for  their  outworn  tobacco  and  com  fields  was 
partly  counteracted  by  the  demand  for  their  surplus 
negroes  in  the  cotton-fields  of  their  more  southern 
neighbors.    When  the  lower  south  accepted  the  sys- 
tem as  the  basis  of  its  prosperity  and  its  society, 
the  tendency  in  the  states  of  the  upper  south,  ex- 
cept in  the  pine  barrens  and  the  hill  country,  t(5^ 
look  upon  the  institution  as  a  heritage  to  be  re- 
luctantly and  apologetically  accepted  grew  fainter^ 
The  efforts  to  find  some  mode  of  removing  the  negro 
from  their  midst  gradually  came  to  an  end,  and  they 
adjusted  themselves  to  slavery  as  a  permanent  sys-  ) 
tem.     Meanwhile,  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  found"*^ 
in  the  institution  the  source  of  their  economic  well- 
being  and  hotly  challenged  the  right  of  other  sec- 
tions to  speak  ill  of  it  or  meddle  with  it  in  any  way, 
lest  their  domestic  security  be  endangered.^ 


^  See  chap,  xix.,  below;  M.  B.  Hammond,  Cotton  Industry, 
part  i.,  App.  i.;  Donnell,  Hist,  of  Cotton;  Watkins,  Production 
and  Prices  of  Cotton. 

2  See  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition  {Am.  A/'a/ion,XVI.). 


50  RISE   OF  THE   NEW  WEST  [1820 

When  the  south  became  fully  conscious  that  sla- 
very set  the  section  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  na- 
tion, when  it  saw  in  nationalizing  legislation,  such  as 
protection  to  manufactures  and  the  construction  of 
a  system  of  internal  improvements,  the  efforts  of 
other  sections  to  deprive  the  cotton  states  of  their 
profits  for  the  benefit  of  an  industrial  development 
in  which  they  did  not  share,  deep  discontent  pre- 
vailed. With  but  slight  intermission  from  the  days 
of  Washington  to  those  of  Monroe,  the  tobacco 
planters  under  the  Virginia  dynasty  had  ruled  the 
nation.  But  now,  when  the  centre  of  power  within 
the  section  passed  from  the  weakening  hands  of 
Virginia  to  those  of  South  Carolina,  the  aggressive 
-Jeader  of  the  Cotton  Kingdom,  the  south  found 
\  itself  a  minority  section  in  the  Union.  When  it 
realized  this,  it  denied  the  right  of  the  majority  to 
rule,  and  proceeded  to  elaborate  a  system  of  minority 
rights  as  a  protection  against  the  forces  of  national 
development,  believing  that  these  forces  threatened 
the  foundations  of  the  prosperity  and  even  the  social 
\safety  of  the  south. 

From  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
seaboard  planters  had  been  learning  the  lesson  of 
control  by  a  fraction  of  the  population.  The  south 
was  by  no  means  a  unified  region  in  its  physiography. 
The  Blue  Ridge  cut  off  the  low  country  of  Virginia 
from  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  beyond  this  val- 
ley the  Alleghanies  separated  the  rest  of  the  state 
from  those  counties  which  we  now  know  as  West 


1830]  THE   SOUTH  51 

Virginia.  By  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  in  the 
Carolinas  and  Georgia,  a  belt  of  pine  barrens,  skirt- 
ing the  "fall  line"  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  miles 
from  the  coast,  divided  the  region  of  tidewater 
planters  of  these  states  from  the  small  farmers  of 
the  up-country.  This  population  of  the  interior  had 
entered  the  region  in  the  course  of  the  second  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  Scotch-Irishmen  and  Ger- 
mans passed  down  the  Great  Valley  from  Penn- 
sylvania into  Virginia,  and  through  the  gaps  in  the 
Blue  Ridge  out  to  the  Piedmont  region  of  the 
Carolinas,  while  contemporaneously  other  streams 
from  Charleston  advanced  to  meet  them.*  Thus, 
at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  south  was 
divided  into  two  areas  presenting  contrasted  types 
of  civilization.  On  the  one  side  were  the  planters, 
raising  their  staple  crops  of  tobacco,  rice,  and  in- 
digo, together  with  some  cultivation  of  the  cereals. 
To  this  region  belonged  the  slaves.  On  the  other 
side  was  this  area  of  small  farmers,  raising  live- 
stock, wheat,  and  corn  under  the  same  conditions 
of  pioneer  farming  as  characterized  the  interior  of 
Pennsylvania. 

From  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
down  to  the  time  with  which  this  volume  deals, 
there  was  a  persistent  struggle  between  the  planters 
of  the  coast,  who  controlled  the  wealth  of  the  region, 
and  the  free  farmers  of  the  interior  of  Maryland, 

'  Bassett,  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report  1894,  p.  141;  Schaper, 
ibid.,  1900,  I.,  317;  Phillips,  ibid.,  1901,  II.,  88. 


52  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia,  The  tidewater 
counties  retained  the  political  power  which  they 
already  possessed  before  this  tide  of  settlement 
flowed  into  the  back-country.  Refusing  in  most  of 
these  states  to  reapportion  on  the  basis  of  nimibers, 
they  protected  their  slaves  and  their  w^ealth  against 
the  dangers  of  a  democracy  interested  in  internal 
improvements  and  capable  of  imposing  a  tax  upon 
slave  property  in  order  to  promote  their  ends.  In 
Virginia,  in  1825,  for  example,  the  western  men  com- 
plained that  twenty  counties  in  the  upper  cotintry, 
with  over  two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  free 
white  inhabitants,  had  no  more  weight  in  the  gov- 
ernment than  twenty  coimties  on  tidewater,  contain- 
ing only  about  fifty  thousand;  that  the  six  smallest 
counties  in  the  state,  compared  with  the  six  largest, 
enjoyed  nearly  ten  times  as  much  political  power.* 
To  the  gentlemen  planters  of  the  seaboard,  the  idea 
of  falling  under  the  control  of  the  farmers  of  the 
interior  of  the  south  seemed  intolerable. 

It  was  only  as  slavery  spread  into  the  uplands, 
with  the  cultivation  of  cotton,  that  the  lowlands  be- 
gan to  concede  and  to  permit  an  increased  power  in 
the  legislatures  to  the  sections  most  nearly  assimi- 
lated to  the  seaboard  type.  South  Carolina  achieved 
this  end  in  1808  by  the  plan  of  giving  to  the  sea- 
board the  control  of  one  house,  while  the  interior 
held  the  other;  but  it  is  to  be  noted  that  this  con- 
cession was  not  made  until  slavery  had  pushed  so 

^Alexandria  Herald,  June  i^,  1825. 


i83o]  THE   SOUTH  53 

far  up  the  river-courses  that  the  reapportionment 
preserved  the  control  in  the  hands  of  slave-holding 
counties.*  A  similar  course  was  followed  by  Vir- 
ginia in  the  convention  of  182 9-1 830,  when,  after  a 
long  struggle,  a  compromise  was  adopted,  by  which 
the  balance  of  power  in  the  state  legislature  was 
transferred  to  the  counties  of  the  Piedmont  and  the 
Valley.^  Here  slave-holding  had  progressed  so  far 
that  the  interest  of  those  counties  was  affiliated 
rather  with  the  coast  than  with  the  trans-Alleghany 
country.  West  Virginia  remained  a  discontented 
area  until  her  independent  statehood  in  the  days 
of  the  Civil  War.  These  transmontane  counties  of 
Virginia  were,  in  their  political  activity  during  our 
period,  rather  to  be  reckoned  with  the  west  than 
with  the  south. 

Thus  the  southern  seaboard  experienced  the  need) 
of  protecting  the  interests  of  its  slave-holding  plant- 
ers against  the  free  democracy  of  the  interior  of 
the  south  itself,  and  learned  how  to  safeguard  the 
minority.  This  experience  was  now  to  serve  the 
south,  when,  having  attained  unity  by  the  spread 
of  slavery  into  the  interior,  it  found  itself  as  a  sec- 
tion in  the  same  relation  to  the  Union  which  the 
slave-holding  tidewater  area  had  held  towards  the. 
more  populous  up-country  of  the  south,  \~J 

*  Calhotin,  Works,  I.,  401;  Schaper,  Sectionalism  and  Repre- 
sentation in  S.  C,  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report  1900, 1.,  434-437. 

^  Va.  Const.  Conv.,  Debates  (1829-1830);  Chandler,  Repre- 
sentation in  Fa.,  in  Johns  Hopkins  Ujiiv.  Studies,  XTV.,  286-298. 


54  RISE   OF  THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

/  The  unification  of  the  section  is  one  of  the  most 
vimportant  features  of  the  period.  Not  only  had  the 
south  been  divided  into  opposing  areas,  as  we  have 
seen,  but  even  its  population  was  far  from  homo- 
geneous. By  the  period  of  this  volume,  however, 
English,  French-Huguenots,  Scotch-Irish,  and  Ger- 
mans had  become  assimilated  into  one  people,  and 
the  negroes,  who  in  1830  in  the  South  Atlantic 
states  numbered  over  a  million  and  a  half  in  a  white 
population  of  not  much  over  two  millions,  were  dif- 
fusing themselves  throughout  the  area  of  the  section 
except  in  West  Virginia  and  the  mountains.  Con- 
temporaneously the  pioneer  farming  type  of  the  inte- 
rior of  the  section  was  replaced  by  the  planter  type.* 
^'As  cotton-planting  and  slave-holding  advanced 
into  the  interior  counties  of  the  old  southern  states, 
the  free  farmers  were  obliged  either  to  change  to  the 
plantation  economy  and  buy  slaves,  or  to  sell  their 
Vjands  and  migrate.  Large  numbers  of  them,  par- 
ticularly in  the  Carolinas,  were  Quakers  or  Baptists, 
whose  religious  scruples  combined  with  their  agricult- 
ural habits  to  make  this  change  obnoxious.  This 
upland  country,  too  distant  from  the  sea-shore  to 
permit  a  satisfactory  market,  was  a  hive  from  which 
pioneers  earlier  passed  into  Kentucky  and  Tennes- 
see, until  those  states  had  become  populous  common- 
wealths. Now  the  exodus  was  increased  by  this 
later  colonization.^    The  Ohio  was  crossed,  the  Mis- 

*  Niles'  Register,  XXL,  132;  cf.  p.  55  below. 
'  See  chap.  v.  below. 


1830]  THE   SOUTH  55 

souri  ascended,  and  the  streams  that  flowed  to  the 
Gulf  were  followed  by  movers  away  from  the  regions 
that  were  undergoing  this  social  and  economic  re- 
construction. 

This  industrial  revolution  was  effective  in  different 
degrees  in  the  different  states.  Comparatively  few 
of  Virginia's  slaves,  which  by  1830  numbered  nearly 
half  a  million,  were  found  in  her  trans-Alleghany 
counties,  but  the  Shenandoah  Valley  was  receiving 
slaves  and  changing  to  the  plantation  type.  In 
North  Carolina  the  slave  population  of  nearly  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  at  the  same  date,  had 
spread  well  into  the  interior,  but  cotton  did  not 
achieve  the  position  there  which  it  held  farther 
south.  The  interior  farmers  worked  small  farms  of 
wheat  and  corn,  laboring  side  by  side  with  their 
negro  slaves  in  the  fields.*  South  Carolina  had  over 
three  hundred  thousand  slaves — more  than  a  ma- 
jority of  her  population  —  and  the  black  belt  ex- 
tended to  the  interior,  Georgia's  slaves,  amounting 
to  over  two  hundred  thousand,  somewhat  less  than 
half  her  population,  steadily  advanced  from  the 
coast  and  the  Savannah  River  towards  the  cotton- 
lands  of  the  interior,  pushing  before  them  the  less 
prosperous  farmers,  who  found  new  homes  to  the 
north  or  south  of  the  cotton-belt  or  migrated  to  the 
southwestern  frontier.^     Here,  as  in  North  Carolina, 

*  Bassett,  Slavery  in  N.  C,  in  Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies, 
XVII.,  324,  399. 

2  Phillips,  Georgia  and  State  Rights,  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Re- 
port 1901,  II.,  106. 


56  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

the  planters  in  the  interior  of  the  state  frequently 
followed  the  plough  or  encouraged  their  slaves  by- 
wielding  the  hoe/ 

Thus  this  process  of  economic  transformation 
passed  from  the  coast  towards  the  mountain  barrier, 
gradually  ehminating  the  inharmonious  elements 
and  steadily  tending  to  produce  a  soUdarity  of  inter- 
ests. The  south  as  a  whole  was  becoming,  for  the 
first  time  since  colonial  days,  a  staple-producing 
region;  and,  as  diversified  farming  declined,  the 
region  tended  to  become  dependent  for  its  suppHes 
of  meat  products,  horses,  and  mules,  and  even  hay 
and  cereals,  upon  the  north  and  west. 

The  westward  migration  of  its  people  checked  the 
growth  of  the  south.  It  had  colonized  the  new 
west  at  the  same  time  that  the  middle  region  had 
been  rapidly  growing  in  population,  and  the  result 
was  that  the  proud  states  of  the  southern  seaboard 
were  reduced  to  numerical  inferiority.  Like  New 
England,  it  was  an  almost  stationary  section.  From 
1820  to  1830  the  states  of  this  group  gained  httle 
more  than  half  a  milHon  souls,  hardly  more  than 
the  increase  of  the  single  state  of  New  York.  Vir- 
ginia, with  a  population  of  over  a  million,  increased 
but  13.7  per  cent.,  and  the  Carolinas  only  15.5  per 
cent.  In  the  next  decade  these  tendencies  were 
even  more  clearly  shown,  for  Virginia  and  the  Caro- 
linas then  gained  but  little  more  than  2  per  cent. 

»  Phillips,  Georgia  and  State  Rights,  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Re- 
port igoi,  II.,  107. 


1830]  THE   SOUTH  57 

Georgia  alone  showed  rapid  increase.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  decade  the  Indians  still  held  all  of 
the  territory  west  of  Macon,  at  the  centre  of  the 
state,  with  the  exception  of  two  tiers  of  counties 
along  the  southern  border;  and,  when  these  lands 
were  opened  towards  the  close  of  the  decade,  they 
were  occupied  by  a  rush  of  settlement  similar  to 
the  occupation  of  Oklahoma  and  Indian  Territory 
in  our  own  day.  What  Maine  was  to  New  Eng- 
land, that  Georgia  was  to  the  southern  seaboard, 
with  the  difference  that  it  was  deeply  touched  by 
influences  characteristically  western.  Because  of 
the  traits  of  her  leaders,  and  the  rude,  aggressive 
policy  of  her  people,  Georgia  belonged  at  least  as 
much  to  the  west  as  to  the  south.  From  colonial 
times  the  Georgia  settlers  had  been  engaged  in  an 
almost  incessant  struggle  against  the  savages  on 
her  border,  and  had  the  instincts  of  a  frontier  so- 
ciety.* 

From   1800  to   1830,   throughout  the  tidewater  1 
region,  there  were  clear  evidences  of  decline.     As 
the  movement  of  capital  and  population  towards  the 
interior  went  on,  wealth  was  drained  from  the  coast  ;^ 
and,  as  time  passed,  the  competition  of  the  fertile 
and  low-priced  lands  of  the  Gulf  basin  proved  too  *^ 
strong  for  the  outworn  lands  even  of  the  interior  of 
the  south.     Under  the  wasteful  system  of  tobacco 
and  cotton  culture,  without  replenishment  of  the 

^  Ibid.,  II.,  88;   hongstreet,  Georgia  Scenes;  Gilmer,  Sketches; 
Miss.  Hist.  Soc,  Publications,  VIII.,  443. 


58  RISE   OF  THE   NEW  WEST  [1820 

soil,  the  staple  areas  would,  in  any  case,  have  de- 
Lclined  in  value.  Even  the  corn  and  wheat  lands 
were  exhausted  by  unscientific  farming.*  Writing  in 
1814  to  Josiah  Quincy,^  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke 
lamented  the  decline  of  the  seaboard  planters.  He 
declared  that  the  region  was  now  sunk  in  obscurity : 
what  enterprise  or  capital  there  was  in  the  country 
had  retired  westward;  deer  and  wild  turkeys  were 
not  so  plentiful  anywhere  in  Kentucky  as  near  the 
site  of  the  ancient  Virginia  capital,  Williamsburg. 
In  the  Virginia  convention  of  1829,  Mr.  Mercer  esti- 
mated that  in  181 7  land  values  in  Virginia  aggre- 
gated two  hundred  and  six  million  dollars,  and 
negroes  averaged  three  hundred  dollars,  while  in 
1829  the  land  values  did  not  surpass  ninety  millions, 
and  slaves  had  fallen  in  value  to  one  himdredand 
fifty  dollars.^ 

In  a  speech  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates, 
in  1832,  Thomas  Marshall^  asserted  that  the  whole 
agricultural  product  of  Virginia  did  not  exceed  in 
value  the  exports  of  eighty  or  ninety  years  before, 
when  it  contained  not  one-sixth  of  the  population. 
In  his  judgment,  the  greater  proportion  of  the  larger 
plantations,  with  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  slaves, 

*  Gooch,  Prize  Essay  on  Agriculture  in  Va.,  in  Lynchburg 
Virginian,  July  4,  1833;  Martin,  Gazetteer  of  Va.,  99,  100. 

^  E.  Quincy,  Josiah  Qiiincy,  353. 

^  Va.  Const.  Conv.,  Debates  (1829-1830),  178;  Collins,  Domes- 
tic Slave  Trade,  26. 

*  Collins,  Domestic  Slave  Trade,  24,  cited  from  Richmond  En- 
quirer, February,  2, 1832. 


1830]  THE   SOUTH  59 

brought  the  proprietors  into  debt,  and  rarely  did  a 
plantation  yield  one  and  a  half  per  cent,  profit  on 
the  capital.  So  great  had  become  the  depression 
that  Randolph  prophesied  that  the  time  was  coming 
when  the  masters  would  run  away  from  the  slaves 
and  be  advertised  by  them  in  the  public  papers.* 

It  was  in  this  period  that  Thomas  Jefferson  fell  "7 
into  such  financial  embarrassments  that  he  was 
obliged  to  request  of  the  legislature  of  Virginia  per- 
mission to  dispose  of  property  by  lottery  to  pay  his 
debts,  and  that  a  subscription  was  taken  up  to 
relieve  his  distress.^  At  the  same  time,  Madison, 
having  vainly  tried  to  get  a  loan  from  the  United 
States  Bank,  was  forced  to  dispose  of  some  of  his 
lands  and  stocks ; '  and  Monroe,  at  the  close  of  his 
term  of  office,  found  himself  financially  ruined.  He 
gave  up  Oak  Hill  and  spent  his  declining  years  with 
his  son-in-law  in  New  York  City.  The  old-time  tide- 
water mansions,  where,  in  an  earlier  day,  everybody 
kept  open  house,  gradually  fell  into  decay. 

Sad  indeed  was  the  spectacle  of  Virginia's  ancient '^ 
aristocracy.  It  had  never  been  a  luxurious  society. 
The  very  wealthy  planters,  with  vast  cultivated 
estates  and  pretentious  homes,  were  in  the  minority. 
For  the  most  part,  the  houses  were  moderate  frame 
structures,  set  at  intervals  of  a  mile  or  so  apart, 
often  in  parklike  grounds,  with  long  avenues  of 
trees.     The  plantation  was  a  little  world  in  itself. 

1  Collins,  Domestic  Slave  Trade,  26. 

*  Randall,  Jefferson,  III. ,527,  561.         '  Ylnnt,  Madison,  380. 


6o  RISE   OF  THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

Here  was  made  much  of  the  clothing  for  the  slaves, 
and  the  mistress  of  the  plantation  supervised  the 
spinning  and  weaving.  Leather  was  tanned  on  the 
place,  and  blacksmithing,  wood-working,  and  other 
industries  were  carried  on,  often  under  the  direc- 
tion of  white  mechanics.  The  planter  and  his  wife 
commonly  had  the  care  of  the  black  families  whom 
they  possessed,  looked  after  them  when  they  were 
sick,  saw  to  their  daily  rations,  arranged  marriages, 
and  determined  the  daily  tasks  of  the  plantation. 
The  abundant  hospitality  between  neighbors  gave 
opportunity  for  social  cultivation,  and  politics  was 
a  favorite  subject  of  conversation. 

The  leading  planters  served  as  justices  of  the  peace, 
but  they  were  not  dependent  for  their  selection  upon 
the  popular  vote.  Appointed  by  the  governor  on 
nomination  of  the  court  itself,  they  constituted  a 
kind  of  close  corporation,  exercising  local  judicial, 
legislative,  and  executive  functions.  The  sheriff 
was  appointed  by  the  governor  from  three  justices 
of  the  peace  recommended  by  the  court,  and  the 
court  itself  appointed  the  county  clerk.  Thus  the 
county  government  of  Virginia  was  distinctly  aristo- 
cratic. County-court  day  served  as  an  opportunity 
for  bringing  together  the  freeholders,  who  included 
not  only  the  larger  planters,  but  the  small  farmers 
and  the  poor  whites  —  hangers-on  of  the  greater 
plantations.  Almost  no  large  cities  were  found  in 
Virginia.  The  court-house  was  hardly  more  than  a 
meeting-place  for  the  rural  population.     Here  farm- 


1830]  THE   SOUTH  61 

ers  exchanged  their  goods,  traded  horses,  often 
fought,  and  listened  to  the  stump  speeches  of  the 
orators.* 

Such  were,  in  the  main,  the  characteristics  of  that 
homespun  plantation  aristocracy  which,  through 
the  Virginia  dynasty,  had  ruled  the  nation  in  the 
days  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Mon- 
roe. As  their  lands  declined  in  value,  they  naturally 
sought  for  an  explanation  and  a  remedy.^  The  ex- 
planation was  found  most  commonly  in  the  charge 
that  the  protective  tariff  was  destroying  the  pros- 
perity of  the  south ;  and  in  reaction  they  turned  to 
demand  the  old  days  of  Jeffersonian  rural  simplicity, 
under  the  guardianship  of  state  rights  and  a  strict 
construction  of  the  Constitution.  Madison  in  vain 
laid  the  fall  in  land  values  in  Virginia  to  the  uncer- 
tainty and  low  prices  of  the  crops,  to  the  quantity 
of  land  thrown  on  the  market,  and  the  attractions 
of  the  cheaper  and  better  lands  beyond  the  moun- 
tains.' 

Others  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  semi- 
annual migration  towards  the  west  and  southwest, 
which  swept  off  enterprising  portions  of  the  people 
and  much  of  the  capital  and  movable  property  of 
the  state,  also  kept  down  the  price  of  land  by  the 
great  quantities  thereby  thrown  into  the  market. 
Instead  of  applying  a  system  of  scientific  farming 

^  Johnson,  Robert  Lewis  Dabney,  14-24;  Smedes,  A  Southern 
Planter,  34-37.  ^  Randall,  Jefferson,  III.,  532. 

'Madison,  Writings  (ed.  of  1S65),  III.,  614. 


62  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

and  replenishment  of  the  soil,  there  was  a  tendency 
for  the  planters  who  remained  to  get  into  debt  in 
order  to  add  to  their  possessions  the  farms  which 
were  offered  for  sale  by  the  movers.  Thus  there  was 
a  flow  of  wealth  towards  the  west  to  pay  for  these 
new  purchases.  The  overgrown  plantations  soon  be- 
gan to  look  tattered  and  almost  desolate.  "Galled 
and  gullied  hill -sides  and  sedgy,  briary  fields"* 
showed  themselves  in  every  direction.  Finally  the 
planter  found  himself  obliged  to  part  with  some  of 
his  slaves,  in  response  to  the  demand  from  the  new 
cotton -fields;  or  to  migrate  himself,  with  his  caravan 
of  negroes,  to  open  a  new  home  in  the  Gulf  region. 
During  the  period  of  this  survey  the  price  for  prime 
field-hands  in  Georgia  averaged  a  little  over  seven 
hundred  dollars.''  If  the  estimate  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  for  negroes  sold  in  family  lots  in 
Virginia  is  correct,  it  is  clear  that  ipconomic  laws 
would  bring  about  a  condition  where  Virginia's  re- 
sources would  in  part  depend  upon  her  supply  of 
slaves  to  the  cotton-belt.^  It  is  clear,  also,  that  the 
Old  Dominion  had  passed  the  apogee  of  her  political 
power. 

It  was  not  only  the  planters  of  Virginia  that  suf- 
fered in  this  period  of  change.  As  the  more  ex- 
tensive and  fertile  cotton-fields  of  the  new  states 
of  the  southwest  opened.  North  Carolina  and  even 

•  Lynchburg  Virginian,  July  4,   1833. 
2  Phillips,  in  Pol.  Sci.  Quart.,  XX.,  267. 
'  Collins,  Domestic  Slave  Trade,  42-46. 


1830]  THE   SOUTH  63 

South  Carolina  found  themselves  embarrassed. 
With  the  fall  in  cotton  prices,  already  mentioned,  it 
became  increasingly  necessary  to  possess  the  advan- 
tages of  large  estates  and  unexhausted  soils,  in  or- 
der to  extract  a  profit  from  this  cultivation.  From 
South  Carolina  there  came  a  protest  more  vehe- 
ment and  aggressive  than  that  of  the  discontented 
classes  of  Virginia.  Already  the  indigo  plantation 
had  ceased  to  be  profitable  and  the  rice  planters  no 
longer  held  their  old  prosperity. 

Charleston  was  peculiarly  suited  to  lead  in  a 
movement  of  revolt.  It  was  the  one  important 
centre  of  real  city  life  of  the  seaboard  south  of 
Baltimore.  Here  every  February  the  planters  gath- 
ered from  their  plantations,  thirty  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  away,  for  a  month  in  their  town 
houses.  At  this  season,  races,  social  gayeties,  and  po- 
litical conferences  vied  with  one  another  in  engaging 
the  attention  of  the  planters.  Returning  to  their 
plantations  in  the  early  spring,  they  remained  until 
June,  when  considerations  of  health  compelled  them 
either  again  to  return  to  the  city,  to  visit  the  moun- 
tains, or  to  go  to  such  watering-places  as  Saratoga 
in  New  York.  Here  again  they  talked  politics  and 
mingled  with  political  leaders  of  the  north.  It  was 
not  until  the  fall  that  they  were  able  to  return  again 
to  their  estates.^  Thus  South  Carolina,  affording  a 
combination  of  plantation  life  with  the  social  inter- 
course of  the  city,  gave  peculiar  opportunities  for 

'  Hodgson,  Letters  from  North  America,  I.,  50. 

VOL.    XIV. — 6 


64  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1830 

exchanging  ideas  and  consolidating  the  sentiment  of 
her  leaders. 

The  condition  of  South  Carolina  was  doubtless 
exaggerated  by  Hayne,  in  his  speech  in  the  Senate 
in  1832,  when  he  characterized  it  as  "not  merely 
one  of  unexampled  depression,  but  of  great  and 
all  -  pervading  distress,"  with  "the  mournful  evi- 
dence of  premature  decay,"  "merchants  bankrupt 
or  driven  away — their  capital  sunk  or  transferred 
to  other  pursuits — our  shipyards  broken  up — our 
ships  all  sold!"  "If,"  said  he,  "we  fly  from  the 
city  to  the  country,  what  do  we  there  behold? 
Fields  abandoned;  the  hospitable  mansions  of  our 
fathers  deserted;  agriculture  drooping;  our  slaves, 
like  their  masters,  working  harder,  and  faring  worse; 
the  planter  striving  with  unavailing  efforts  to  avert 
the  ruin  which  is  before  him."  He  drew  a  sad  pict- 
ure of  the  once  thriving  planter,  reduced  to  despair, 
gathering  up  the  small  remnants  of  his  broken  fort- 
une, and,  with  his  wife  and  little  ones,  tearing 
himself  from  the  scenes  of  his  childhood  and  the 
bones  of  his  ancestors  to  seek  in  the  wilderness  the 
reward  for  his  industry  of  which  the  policy  of  Con- 
gress had  deprived  him.* 

The  genius  of  the  south  expressed  itself  most 
clearly  in  the  field  of  politics.  If  the  democratic 
middle  region  could  show  a  multitude  of  clever 
politicians,    the    aristocratic    south    possessed    an 

*  Register  of  Debates,  VIII.,  pt.  i.,  80;  compare  Houston, 
Nullification  in  S.  C,  46. 


1832]  THE   SOUTH  65 

abundance  of  leaders  bold  in  political  initiative  and 
masterful  in  their  ability  to  use  the  talents  of  their 
northern  allies.  When  the  Missouri  question  was 
debated,  John  Quincy  Adams  remarked  "that  if 
institutions  are  to  be  judged  by  their  results  in  the 
composition  of  the  councils  of  this  Union,  the  slave- 
holders arc  much  more  ably  represented  than  the 
simple  freemen."  * 

The  southern  statesmen  fall  into  two  classes.  On  | 
the  one  side  was  the  Virginia  group,  now  for  the  most 
part  old  men,  rich  in  the  honors  of  the  nation,  still 
influential  through  their  advice,  but  no  longer  direct- 
ing party  policy.  Jefferson  and  Madison  were  in 
retirement  in  their  old  age ;  Marshall,  as  chief-justice, 
was  continuing  his  career  as  the  expounder  of  the 
Constitution  in  accordance  with  Federalist  ideals; 
John  Randolph,  his  old  eccentricities  increased  by 
disease  and  intemperance,  remained  to  proclaim  the 
extreme  doctrines  of  southern  dissent  and  to  impale 
his  adversaries  with  javelins  of  flashing  wit.  A 
maker  of  phrases  which  stung  and  festered,  he  was 
still  capable  of  influencing  public  opinion  somewhat 
in  the  same  way  as  are  the  cartoonists  of  modern 
times.  But  "his  course  through  life  had  been  like 
that  of  the  arrow  which  Alcestes  shot  to  heaven, 
which  effected  nothing  useful,  though  it  left  a  long 
stream  of  light  behind  it."  '^  In  North  Carolina,  the 
venerable  Macon  remained  to  protest  like  a  later 

*  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  506. 

'  Lynchburg  Virginian,  May  9,  1833. 


66  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

Cato  against  the  tendencies  of  the  times  and  to 
raise  a  warning  voice  to  his  fellow  slave-holders 
against  national  consolidation. 

In  the  course  of  this  decade,  the  effective  lead- 
ership of  the  south  fell  to  Calhoun  and  Crawford.* 
About  these  statesmen  were  grouped  energetic  and 
able  men  like  Hayne,  McDuffie,  and  Hamilton  of 
South  Carolina,  and  Cobb  and  Forsyth  of  Georgia 
— men  who  sometimes  pushed  their  leaders  on  in 
a  sectional  path  which  the  latter's  caution  or  per- 
sonal ambitions  made  them  reluctant  to  tread. 
Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  early  in  the  decade 
the  south  lost  two  of  her  greatest  statesmen,  the 
wise  and  moderate  Lowndes,  of  South  Carolina, 
and  Pinkney,  the  brilliant  Maryland  orator.  In 
the  course  of  the  ten  years  which  w^e  are  to  sketch, 
the  influence  of  economic  change  within  this  sec- 
tion transformed  the  South  Carolinians  from  warm 
supporters  of  a  liberal  national  policy  into  the 
straitest  of  the  sect  of  state  -  sovereignty  advo- 
cates, intent  upon  raising  barriers  against  the  flood 
of  nationalism  that  threatened  to  overwhelm  the 
south.  In  relating  the  changing  policy  of  the 
southern  political  leaders,  we  shall  again  observe  the 
progress  and  the  effects  of  the  economic  transfor- 
mations which  it  has  been  the  purpose  of  this  chap- 
ter to  portray. 

*  See  chap.  xi.  below. 


CHAPTER   V 

COLONIZATION   OF  THE  WEST 
(1820-1830) 

THE  rise  of  the  new  west  was  the  most  significant^ 
fact  in  American   history  in  the  years  imme- 
diately following  the  War  of  181 2.     Ever  since  the 
beginnings  of  colonization  on  the  Atlantic  coast  a 
frontier  of  settlement  had  advanced,  cutting  into 
the  forest,  pushing  back  the  Indian,  and  steadily 
widening  the  area  of  civilization  in  its  rear.*     There 
had  been  a  west  even  in  early  colonial  days;  but 
then  it  lay  close  to  the  coast.     By  the  middle  of\ 
the  eighteenth  century  the  west  was  to  be  found 
beyond  tide-water,  advancing  towards  the  Alleghany  J 
Mountains.     When  this  barrier  was  crossed  and  the-i 
lands  on  the  other  side  of  the  mountains  were  won,  in 
the  days  of  the  Revolution,  a  new  and  greater  west, 
more  influential  on  the  nation's  destiny,  was  created. H 

'Three  articles  by  F.  J.  Turner,  viz.:  "Significance  of  the 
Frontier  in  American  History,"  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report 
1893,  199-227;  "Problem  of  the  West,"  in  "Atlantic  Monthly, 
LXXVIII.,  289;  "Contributions  of  the  West  to  American  De- 
mocTacy,"  ibid.,  XCI.,  83. 

*  Howard,  Preliminaries  of  Revolution,  chap,  xiii.;  Van  Tyne, 
A»t.  Revolution,  chap,  xv.;  McLaughlin,  Confederation  and  Con- 
stitution, chap.  viii.  {Atn.  Nation,  VIII.,  IX.,  X.). 


68  RISE   OF  THE   NEW  WEST  [1820 

The  men  of  the  "Western  Waters"  or  the  "West- 
ern World,"  as  they  loved  to  call  themselves,  devel- 
oped under  conditions  of  separation  from  the  older 
settlements  and  from  Europe.  The  lands,  practi- 
cally free,  in  this  vast  area  not  only  attracted  the 
settler,  but  furnished  opportunity  for  all  men  to  hew 
out  their  own  careers.  The  wilderness  ever  opened 
a  gate  of  escape  to  the  poor,  the  discontented,  and 
the  oppressed.  If  social  conditions  tended  to  crys- 
tallize in  the  east,  beyond  the  Alleghanies  there 
was  freedom.  Grappling  with  new  problems,  under 
these  conditions,  the  society  that  spread  into  this 
region  developed  inventiveness  and  resourcefulness; 
the  restraints  of  custom  were  broken,  and  new  activi- 
ties, new  lines  of  gro\^1;h,  new  institutions  were  pro- 
duced. Mr.  Bryce  has  well  declared  that  "  the  West 
is  the  most  American  part  of  America.  .  .  .  What 
Europe  is  to  Asia,  what  England  is  to  the  rest  of 
Europe,  what  America  is  to  England,  that  the 
Western  States  and  Territories  are  to  the  Atlantic 
States."'  The  American  spirit  —  the  traits  that 
have  come  to  be  recognized  as  the  most  characteris- 
tic— was  developed  in  the  new  commonwealths  that 
sprang  into  life  beyond  the  seaboard.  In  these  new 
western  lands  Americans  achieved  a  boldness  of 
conception  of  the  country's  destiny  and  democracy. 
The  ideal  of  the  west  was  its  emphasis  upon  the 
worth  and  possibilities  of  the  common  man,  its 
belief  in  the  right  of  every  man  to  rise  to  the  full 

'  Bryce,  American  Commonwealth  (ed.  of  1895),  II.,  830. 


1830]  WESTERN   COLONIZATION  69 

measure  of  his  own  nature,  under  conditions  of 
social  mobility.  Western  democracy  was  no  theo- 
rist's dream.  It  came,  stark  and  strong  and  full  of 
life,  from  the  American  forest.* 

The  time  had  now  come  when  this  section  was  tol 
make  itself  felt  as  a  dominant  force  in  American 
life.  Already  it  had  shown  its  influence  upon  the 
older  sections.  By  its  competition,  by  its  attrac- 
tions for  settlers,  it  reacted  on  the  east  and  gave 
added  impulse  to  the  democratic  movement  in  New  j 
England  and  New  York.  The  struggle  of  Balti-v 
more,  New  York  City,  and  Philadelphia  for  the 
rising  commerce  of  the  interior  was  a  potent  factor 
in  the  development  of  the  middle  region.  In  the 
south  the  spread  of  the  cotton-plant  and  the  new 
form  which  slavery  took  were  phases  of  the  west- 
ward movement  of  the  plantation.  The  discontent 
of  the  old  south  is  partly  explained  by  the  migra- 
tion of  her  citizens  to  the  west  and  by  the  compe- 
tition of  her  colonists  in  the  lands  beyond  the  AUe- 
ghanies.  The  future  of  the  south  lay  in  its  affiliation 
to  the  Cotton  Kingdom  of  the  lower  states  which 
were  rising  on  the  plains  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Rightly  to  understand  the  power  which  the  new  \ 
west  was  to  exert  upon  the  economic  and  political 
life  of  the  nation  in  the  years  between  1820  and 
1830,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  somewhat  fully  the 

*  F.  J.  Turner,  "  Contributions  of  the  West  to  American  De- 
mocracy," in  Atlantic  Monthly,  XCL,  83,  and  "The  Middle 
West,"  in  International  Monthly,  IV.,  794. 


70  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1811 

statistics  of  growth  in  western  population  and   in- 
Idustry. 

The  western  states  ranked  with  the  middle  region 
and  the  south  in  respect  to  population.  Between 
1 81 2  and  1 82 1  six  new  western  commonwealths  were 
added  to  the  Union:  Louisiana  (181 2),  Indiana 
(181 6),  Mississippi  (181 7),  Illinois  (18 18),  Alabama 
(18 1 9),  and  Missouri  (182 1).  In  the  decade  from 
1820  to  1830,  these  states,  with  their  older  sisters, 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Ohio,  increased  their 
population  from  2,217,000  to  nearly  3,700,000,  a 
gain  of  about  a  million  and  a  half  in  the  decade. 
The  percentages  of  increase  in  these  new  communi- 
ties tell  a  striking  story.  Even  the  older  states  of 
the  group  grew  steadily.  Kentucky,  with  22  per 
cent.,  Louisiana,  with  41,  and  Tennessee  and  Ohio, 
each  with  61,  were  increasing  much  faster  than  New 
England  and  the  south,  outside  of  Maine  and 
Georgia.  But  for  the  newer  communities  the  per- 
centages of  gain  are  still  more  significant:  Missis- 
sippi, 81  per  cent.;  Alabama,  142;  Indiana,  133; 
and  Illinois,  185.  The  population  of  Ohio,  which 
hardly  more  than  a  generation  before  was  "fresh, 
untouched,  unbounded,  magnificent  wilderness,"  ' 
was  now  nearly  a  million,  surpassing  the  combined 
population  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut. 

A  new  section  had  arisen  and  was  growing  at  such 
Qa  rate  that  a  description  of  it  in  any  single  year 
would  be  falsified  before  it  could  be  published.     Nor 
»  Webster,  Writings  (National  ed.),  V.,  252. 


1830]  WESTERN   COLONIZATION  71 

is  the  whole  strength  of  the  western  element  re- 
vealed by  these  figures.  In  order  to  estimate  the 
weight  of  the  western  population  in  1830,  we  must 
add  six  hundred  thousand  souls  in  the  western  half 
of  New  York,  three  hundred  thousand  in  the  inte- 
rior counties  of  Pennsylvania,  and  over  two  hun- 
dred thousand  in  the  trans-Alleghany  counties  of 
Virginia,  making  an  aggregate  of  four  million  six 
hundred  thousand.  Fully  to  reckon  the  forces  of 
backwoods  democracy,  moreover,  we  should  include 
a  large  fraction  of  the  interior  population  of  Maine, 
New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont,  North  Carolina,  and 
Georgia,  and  northern  New  York.  All  of  these  re-H 
gions  were  to  be  influenced  by  the  ideals  of  demo- 
cratic rule  which  were  springing  up  in  the  Missis-  \ 
sippi  Valley. 

In  voting-power  the  western  states  alone — to  say 
nothing  of  the  interior  districts  of  the  older  states — 
were  even  more  important  than  the  figures  for  popu- 
lation indicate.  The  west  itself  had,  under  the  ap-"] 
portionment  of  1822,  forty-seven  out  of  the  two 
hundred  and  thirteen  members  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  while  in  the  Senate  its  representa- 
tion was  eighteen  out  of  forty-eight — more  than  that  v 
of  any  other  section.  Clearly,  here  was  a  region  to 
be  reckoned  with;  its  economic  interests,  its  ideals, 
and  its  political  leaders  were  certain  to  have  a  power- 
ful, if  not  a  controlling,  voice  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation. 

At  the  close  of  the  War  of  181 2  the  west  had  much 


72  RISE   OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1815 

homogeneity.  Parts  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and 
Ohio  had  been  settled  so  many  years  that  they  no 
longer  presented  typical  western  conditions;  but 
in  most  of  its  area  the  west  then  w^as  occupied  by 
pioneer  farmers  and  stock-raisers,  eking  out  their 
larder  and  getting  peltries  by  hunting,  and  raising 
only  a  small  surplus  for  market.  By  1830,  how- 
ever, industrial  differentiation  between  the  northern 
and  southern  portions  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  was 
clearly  marked.  The  northwest  was  changing  to  a 
land  of  farmers  and  town-builders,  anxious  for  a 
market  for  their  grain  and  cattle;  while  the  south- 
west was  becoming  increasingly  a  cotton-raising  sec- 
tion, swayed  by  the  same  impulses  in  respect  to 
staple  exports  as  those  which  governed  the  southern 
seaboard.  Economically,  the  northern  portion  of 
the  valley  tended  to  connect  itself  with  the  middle 
states,  while  the  southern  portion  came  into  increas- 
ingly intimate  connection  with  the  south.  Never- 
theless, it  would  be  a  radical  mistake  not  to  deal 
with  the  west  as  a  separate  region,  for,  with  all  these 
differences  within  itself,  it  possessed  a  fundamental 
unity  in  its  social  structure  and  its  democratic  ideals, 
and  at  times,  in  no  uncertain  way,  it  showed  a  con- 
sciousness of  its  separate  existence. 

In  occupying  the  Mississippi  Valley  the  American 
people  colonized  a  region  far  surpassing  in  area  the 
territory  of  the  old  thirteen  states.  The  movement 
was,  indeed,  but  the  continuation  of  the  advance  of 
the  frontier  which  had  begun  in  the  earliest  days  of 


1830]  WESTERN   COLONIZATION  73 

American  colonization.  The  existence  of  a  great 
body  of  land,  offered  at  so  low  a  price  as  to  be  prac- 1 
tically  free,  inevitably  drew  population  towards  the 
west.  When  wild  lands  sold  for  two  dollars  an  acre, 
and,  indeed,  could  be  occupied  by  squatters  almost 
without  molestation,  it  was  certain  that  settlers 
would  seek  them  instead  of  paying  twenty  to  fifty 
dollars  an  acre  for  farms  that  lay  not  much  farther 
to  the  east — particularly  when  the  western  lands 
were  more  fertile.  The  introduction  of  the  steam- 
boat on  the  western  waters  in  181 1,  moreover, 
soon  revolutionized  transportation  conditions  in  the 
West.*  At  the  beginning  of  the  period  of  which  we 
are  treating,  steamers  were  ascending  the  Mississippi 
and  the  Missouri,  as  well  as  the  Ohio  and  its  tribu- 
taries. Between  the  close  of  the  War  of  181 2  and 
1830,  moreover,  the  Indian  title  was  extinguished 
to  vast  regions  in  the  west.  Half  of  Michigan  was 
opened  to  settlement;  the  northwestern  quarter  of 
Ohio  was  freed;  in  Indiana  and  Illinois  (more  than 
half  of  which  had  been  Indian  country  prior  to  1 8 1 6) 
all  but  a  comparatively  small  region  of  undesired 
prairie  lands  south  of  Lake  Michigan  was  ceded; 
almost  the  whole  state  of  Missouri  was  freed  from 
its  Indian  title;  and,  in  the  Gulf  region,  at  the  close 
of  the  decade,   the   Indians  held  but  two  isolated 

'  Flint,  Letters,  260;  Monette,  in  Miss.  Hist.  Soc,  Publications, 
VII.,  503;  Hall,  Statistics  of  the  West,  236,  247;  Lloyd,  Steam- 
boat Disasters  (1853),  32,  40-45;  Preble,  Steam  Navigation,  64; 
McMaster,  United  States,  IV.,  402;  Chittenden,  Early  Steamboat 
Navigation  on  the  Missouri,  chap.  ix. 


74  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1810 

islands  of  territory,  one  in  western  Georgia  and 
eastern  Alabama,  and  the  other  in  northern  and 
central  Mississippi.  These  ceded  regions  were  the 
fruit  of  the  victories  of  William  Henry  Harrison  in 
the  northwest,  and  of  Andrew  Jackson  in  the  Gulf 
region.  They  were,  in  effect,  conquered  provinces, 
just  opened  to  colonization. 

The  maps  of  the  United  States  census,  giving  the 
distribution  of  population  in  1810,  1820,  and  1830,' 
exhibit  clearly  the  effects  of  the  defeat  of  the  Indians, 
and  show  the  areas  that  were  occupied  in  these  years. 
In  1810  settlement  beyond  the  mountains  was  al- 
most limited  to  a  zone  along  the  Ohio  River  and  its 
tributaries,  the  Cumberland  and  the  Tennessee.  In 
the  southwest,  the  vicinity  of  Mobile  showed  sparse 
settlement,  chiefly  survivals  of  the  Spanish  and  Eng- 
lish occupation;  and,  along  the  fluvial  lands  of  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  lower  Mississippi,  in  the  Natchez 
region,  as  well  as  in  the  old  province  of  Louisiana, 
there  was  a  considerable  area  occupied  by  planters. 

By  1820  the  effects  of  the  War  of  181 2  and  the 
rising  tide  of  westward  migration  became  manifest. 
Pioneers  spread  along  the  river-courses  of  the  north- 
west well  up  to  the  Indian  boundary.  The  zone 
of  settlement  along  the  Ohio  ascended  the  Missouri, 
in  the  rush  to  the  Boone's  Lick  country,  towards 
the  centre  of  the  present  state.  From  the  settle- 
ments of  middle  Tennessee  a  pioneer  farming  area 

•See  maps  of  population;  compare  U.  S.  Census  of  1900, 
Statistical  Atlas,  plates  4,  5,  6. 


1830]  WESTERN   COLONIZATION  75 

reached  southward  to  connect  with  the  settlements 
of  Mobile,  and  the  latter  became  conterminous  with 
those  of  the  lower  Mississippi. 

By  1830  large  portions  of  these  Indian  lands, 
which  were  ceded  between  181 7  and  1829,  received 
the  same  type  of  colonization.  The  unoccupied 
lands  in  Indiana  and  Illinois  were  prairie  country, 
then  deemed  unsuited  for  settlement  because  of  the 
lack  of  wood  and  drinking-water.  It  was  the  hard- 
woods that  had  been  taken  up  in  the  northwest, 
and,  for  the  most  part,  the  tracts  a  little  back  from 
the  unhealthful  bottom-lands,  but  in  close  proxim- 
ity to  the  rivers,  which  were  the  only  means  of 
transportation  before  the  building  of  good  roads. 
A  new  island  of  settlement  appeared  in  the  north- 
western portion  of  Illinois  and  the  adjacent  regions 
of  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  due  to  the  opening  of  the 
lead-mines.  Along  the  Missouri  Valley  and  in  the 
Gulf  region  the  areas  possessed  in  1820  increased  in 
density  of  population.  Georgia  spread  her  settlers 
into  the  Indian  lands,  which  she  had  so  recently 
secured  by  threatening  a  rupture  with  the  United 

Translated  into  terms  of  human  activity,  these 
shaded  areas,  encroaching  on  the  blank  spaces  of  the 
map,  meant  much  for  the  history  of  the  United 
States.  Even  in  the  northwest,  which  we  shall  first 
describe,  they  represent,  in  the  main,  the  migration 

*  MacDonald,  Jacksonian  Democracy  {Am.  Nation,  XV.), 
chap.  X. 


76  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

of  southern  people.  New  England,  after  the  distress 
following  the  War  of  181 2  and  the  hard  winter  of 
1816-1817,  had  sent  many  settlers  into  western 
New  York  and  Ohio;  the  Western  Reserve  had  in- 
creased in  population  by  the  immigration  of  Con- 
necticut people ;  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  had 
sent  colonists  to  southern  and  central  Ohio,  with 
Cincinnati  as  the  commercial  centre.  In  Ohio  the 
settlers  of  middle-state  origin  were  decidedly  more 
numerous  than  those  from  the  south,  and  New 
England's  share  was  distinctly  smaller  than  that 
of  the  south.  In  the  Ohio  legislature  in  1822  there 
were  thirty-eight  members  of  middle-state  birth, 
thirty-three  of  southern  (including  Kentucky),  and 
twenty -five  of  New  England.  But  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee  (now  sufficiently  settled  to  need  larger  and 
cheaper  farms  for  the  rising  generation),  together 
with  the  up-country  of  the  south,  contributed  the 
mass  of  the  pioneer  colonists  to  most  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley  prior  to  1830.*  Of  course,  a  large  frac- 
tion of  these  came  from  the  Scotch-Irish  and  Ger- 
man stock  that  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  passed  from  Pennsylvania  along  the  3-reat 
Valley  to  the  up-country  of  the  south.  Indiana,  so 
late  as  1850,  showed  but  ten  thousand  natives  of 

'  See,  for  Ohio,  Niles'  Register,  XXL,  368  (leg.  session  of  1822), 
and  Nat.  Republican,  January  2,  1824;  for  Illinois  in  1833, 
Western  Monthly  Magazine,  I.,  199;  for  Missouri  convention  of 
1820,  Niles'  Register,  XVIII.,  400;  for  Alabama  in  1820,  ibid., 
XX.,  64.  Social  histories,  travels,  newspapers,  and  the  census 
of  1850  support  the  text. 


1830]  WESTERN   COLONIZATION  77 

New  England,  and  twice  as  many  persons  of 
southern  as  of  middle  states  origin.  In  the  his- 
tory of  Indiana,  North  Carolina  contributed  a  large 
fraction  of  the  population,  giving  to  it  its  "Hoo- 
sier"  as  w^ll  as  much  of  its  Quaker  stock.  Illi- 
nois in  this  period  had  but  a  sprinkling  of  New- 
Englanders,  engaged  in  business  in  the  little  towns. 
The  southern  stock,  including  settlers  from  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee,  was  the  preponderant  class. 
The  Illinois  legislature  for  1833  contained  fifty-eight 
from  the  south  (includingKentucky  and  Tennessee), 
nineteen  from  the  middle  states,  and  only  four  from 
New  England.  Missouri's  population  was  chiefly 
Kentuckians  and  Tennesseeans.  a 

The  leaders  of  this  southern  element  came,  ml 
considerable   measure,  from  well-to-do  classes,  who 
migrated  to  improve  their  conditions  in  the  freer 
opportunities    of   a    new   country.     Land   specula- 
tion, the  opportunity  of  political  preferment,  and 
the  advantages  which  these  growing  communities 
brought  to  practitioners  of  the  law  combined  to  \ 
attract  men  of  this  class.     Many  of  them,  as  we  shali-J 
see,  brought  their  slaves  with  them,  under  the  sys- 
tems of  indenture  which  made  this  possible.     Mis- 
souri, especially,  was  sought  by  planters  with  their      / 
slaves.     But  it  was  the  poorer  whites,  the  more^ 
democratic,  non-slaveholding  element  of  the  south, 
which  furnished  the  great  bulk  of  the  settlers  north 
of  the  Ohio.     Prior  to  the  close  of  the  decade  the 
same  farmer  type  was  in  possession  of  large  parts  of 


78  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1816 

the  Gulf  region,  whither,  through  the  whole  of  our 
period,  the  slave-holding  planters  came  in  increasing 
numbers. 

Two  of  the  families  which  left  Kentucky  for  the 
newer  country  in  these  years  will  illustrate  the 
movement.  The  Lincoln  family  *  had  reached  that 
state  by  migration  from  the  north  with  the  stream 
of  backwoodsmen  which  bore  along  with  it  the  Cal- 
houns  and  the  Boones.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born 
in  a  hilly,  barren  portion  of  Kentucky  in  1809.  In 
181 6,  when  Lincoln  was  a  boy  of  seven,  his  father, 
a  poor  carpenter,  took  his  family  across  the  Ohio  on 
a  raft,  with  a  capital  consisting  of  his  kit  of  tools 
and  several  hundred  gallons  of  whiskey.  In  Indiana 
he  hewed  a  path  into  the  forest  to  a  new  home  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  state,  where  for  a  year  the  family 
lived  in  a  "half-faced  camp,"  or  open  shed  of  poles, 
clearing  their  land.  In  the  hardships  of  the  pio- 
neer life  Lincoln's  mother  died,  as  did  many  another 
frontier  woman.  In  1830  Lincoln  was  a  tall,  strap- 
ping youth,  six  feet  four  inches  in  height,  able  to 
sink  his  axe  deeper  than  other  men  into  the  opposing 
forest.  At  that  time  his  father  moved  to  the  San- 
gamon country  of  IlHnois  with  the  rush  of  land- 
seekers  into  that  new  and  popular  region.  Near  the 
home  of  Lincoln  in  Kentucky  was  born,  in  1808, 
Jefferson  Da  vis, ^  whose  father,  shortly  before  the  War 

*  Tarbell,  Lincoln,  I.,  chaps,  i.-iv. ;  Hemdon,  Lincoln,  I.,  chaps. 
i.-iv.;  Nicolay  and  Hay,  Lincoln,  I.,  chaps,  i.-iii. 

*  Mrs.  Davis,  Jefferson  Davis,  I.,  5. 


i8i7]  WESTERN   COLONIZATION  79 

of  181 2,  went  with  the  stream  of  southward  movers 
to  Louisiana  and  then  to  Mississippi.  Davis's  broth- 
ers fought  under  Jackson  in  the  War  of  181 2,  and 
the  family  became  typical  planters  of  the  Gulf  re- 
gion. 

Meanwhile,  the  roads  that  led  to  the  Ohio  Valley'^ 
were  followed  by  an  increasing  tide  of  settlers  from 
the  east.  "Old  America  seems  to  be  breaking  up, 
and  moving  westward,"  wrote  Morris  Birkbeck  in  W 
181 7,  as  he  passed  on  the  National  Road  through 
Pennsylvania.  "  We  are  seldom  out  of  sight,  as  we 
travel  on  this  grand  track,  towards  the  Ohio,  of 
family  groups,  behind  and  before  us.  ...  A  small 
waggon  (so  light  that  you  might  almost  carry  it, 
yet  strong  enough  to  bear  a  good  load  of  bedding, 
utensils  and  provisions,  and  a  swarm  of  young 
citizens, — and  to  sustain  marvellous  shocks  in  its 
passage  over  these  rocky  heights)  with  two  small 
horses;  sometimes  a  cow  or  two,  comprises  their 
all;  excepting  a  little  store  of  hard-earned  cash 
for  the  land  office  of  the  district;  where  they  may 
obtain  a  title  for  as  many  acres  as  they  possess  half- 
dollars,  being  one  fourth  of  the  purchase-money. 
The  waggon  has  a  tilt,  or  cover,  made  of  a  sheet, 
or  perhaps  a  blanket.  The  family  are  seen  before, 
behind,  or  within  the  vehicle,  according  to  the  road 
or  the  weather,  or  perhaps  the  spirits  of  the  party. 
...  A  cart  and  single  horse  frequently  affords  the 
means  of  transfer,  sometimes  a  horse  and  pack- 
saddle.     Often  the  back  of  the  poor  pilgrim  bears 

VOL.    XIV. 7 


y, 


80  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1815 

all  his  effects,  and  his  wife  follows,  naked-footed, 
bending  under  the  hopes  of  the  family."  * 

The  southerners  who  came  by  land  along  the  many 
bad  roads  through  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  usually 
travelled  with  heavy,  long-bodied  wagons,  drawn 
by  four  or  six  horses.^  These  family  groups,  crowd- 
ing roads  and  fords,  marching  towards  the  sun- 
set, with  the  canvas-covered  wagon,  ancestor  of  the 
prairie-schooner  of  the  later  times,  were  typical  of 
the  overland  migration.  The  poorer  classes  travelled 
on  foot,  sometimes  carrying  their  entire  effects  in  a 
cart  drawn  by  themselves.'  Those  of  more  means 
took  horses,  cattle,  and  sheep,  and  sometimes  sent 
their  household  goods  by  wagon  or  by  steamboat 
up  the  Mississippi.'* 

The  routes  of  travel  to  the  western  country  were 
numerous.^  Prior  to  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal 
the  New  England  clement  either  passed  along  the 
Mohawk  and  the  Genesee  turnpike  to  Lake  Erie, 
or  crossed  the  Hudson  and  followed  the  line  of  the 
Catskill  turnpike  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Alle- 
gheny, or,  by  way  of  Boston,  took  ship  to  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  or  Baltimore,  in  order  to  follow  a  more 
southerly  route.  In  Pennsylvania  the  principal 
route  was  the  old  road  which,  in  a  general  way, 

>  Birkbeck,  Notes  on  a  Journey  from  Va.  to  III.,  25,  26. 
^  Hist,  of  Grundy  County,  III.,  149. 
2  Niks'  Register,  XXI.,  320. 

*  Howells,  Life  in  Ohio,  1813-1840,  S6 ;  Jones,  ///.  and  the  West, 
31;  Hist,  of  Grundy  County,  III.,  149. 
^  See  map,  page  226. 


i83o]  WESTERN   COLONIZATION  8i 

followed  the  line  that  Forbes  had  cut  in  the  French 
and  Indian  War  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg  by 
way  of  Lancaster  and  Bedford.     By  this  time  the 
road  had  been  made  a  turnpike  through  a  large  por- 
tion of  its  course.     From  Baltimore  the  traveller 
followed  a  turnpike  to  Cumberland,  on  the  Potomac, 
where   began   the   old   National   Road   across   the 
mountains  to  Wheeling,  on  the  Ohio,  with  branches 
leading  to  Pittsburg.     This  became  one  of  the  great 
arteries  of  western  migration  and  commerce,  con- 
necting, as  it  did  at  its  eastern  end,  with  the  Shen- 
andoah Valley,  and   thus  affording   access  to  the 
Ohio  for  large  areas  of  Virginia.     Other  routes  lay 
through  the  passes  of  the  Alleghanies,  easily  reached 
from  the  divide  between  the  waters  of  North  Caro- 
lina and  of  West  Virginia.     Saluda  Gap,  in  north- 
western South  Carolina,  led  the  way  to  the  great 
valley  of  eastern  Tennessee.     In  Tennessee  and  Ken- 
tucky many  routes  passed  to  the  Ohio  in  the  re- 
gion of  Cincinnati  or  Louisville. 

When  the  settler  arrived  at  the  waters  of  the 
Ohio,  he  either  took  a  steamboat  or  placed  his 
possessions  on  a  flatboat,  or  ark,  and  floated  down 
the  river  to  his  destination.  From  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Allegheny  many  emigrants  took  advantage  of 
the  lumber-rafts,  which  were  constructed  from  the 
pine  forests  of  southwestern  New  York,  to  float  to 
the  Ohio  with  themselves  and  their  belongings. 
With  the  advent  of  the  steamboat  these  older 
modes  of  navigation  were,  to  a  considerable  extent, 


VOL.  XIV. — 6 


82  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

superseded.  But  navigation  on  the  Great  Lakes 
had  not  sufficiently  advanced  to  afford  opportunity 
for  any  considerable  movement  of  settlement,  by 
this  route,  beyond  Lake  Erie. 

In  the  course  of  the  decade  the  cost  of  reaching 
the  west  varied  greatly  with  the  decrease  in  the 
transportation  rates  brought  about  by  the  competi- 
tion of  the  Erie  Canal,  the  improvement  of  the  turn- 
pikes, and  the  development  of  steamboat  naviga- 
tion. The  expense  of  the  long  overland  journey 
from  New  England,  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  Erie 
Canal,  made  it  extremely  difficult  for  those  without 
any  capital  to  reach  the  west.  The  stage  rates  on 
the  Pennsylvania  turnpike  and  the  old  National 
Road,  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal,  were 
about  five  or  six  dollars  a  hundred -weight  from 
Philadelphia  or  Baltimore  to  the  Ohio  River;  the 
individual  was  regarded  as  so  much  freight.*  To 
most  of  the  movers,  who  drove  their  own  teams  and 
camped  by  the  wayside,  however,  the  actual  expense 
was  simply  that  of  providing  food  for  themselves 
and  their  horses  on  the  road.  The  cost  of  moving 
by  land  a  few  years  later  is  illustrated  by  the  case 
of  a  Maryland  family,  consisting  of  fifteen  persons, 
of  whom  five  were  slaves.  They  travelled  about 
twenty  miles  a  day,  with  a  four-horse  wagon,  three 
hundred  miles,  to  Wheeling,  at  an  expense  of 
seventy-five  dollars.^    The  expense  of  travelling  by 

•  Evans,  Pedestrious  Tour,  145. 
^Niles'  Register,  XLVIII.,  242. 


1830]  WESTERN   COLONIZATION  83 

stage  and  steamboat  from  Philadelphia  to  St.  Louis 
at  the  close  of  the  decade  was  about  fifty-five  dollars 
for  one  person ;  or  by  steamboat  from  New  Orleans 
to  St.  Louis,  thirty  dollars,  including  food  and  lodg- 
ing. For  deck-passage,  without  food  or  lodging,  the 
charge  was  only  eight  dollars.*  In  1823  the  cost  of 
passage  from  Cincinnati  to  New  Orleans  by  steam- 
boat was  twenty-five  dollars;  from  New  Orleans  to 
Cincinnati,  fifty  dollars,^  In  the  early  thirties  one 
could  go  from  New  Orleans  to  Pittsburg,  as  cabin 
passenger,  for  from  thirty-five  to  forty-five  dollars.' 

' ///.  Monthly  Magazine,  II.,  53. 
^Miles'  Register,  XXV.,  95. 

*  Emigrants'  and  Travellers'  Guide  through  the  Valley  0}  ilte 
Mississippi,  341. 


CHAPTER   VI 

SOCIAL  AND   ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
THE    WEST 

(1820-1830) 

ARRIVED  at  the  nearest  point  to  his  destina- 
L  tion  on  the  Ohio,  the  emigrant  either  cut  out 
a  road  to  his  new  home  or  pushed  up  some  tribu- 
tary of  that  river  in  a  keel-boat.  If  he  was  one  of 
the  poorer  classes,  he  became  a  squatter  on  the 
public  lands,  trusting  to  find  in  the  profits  of  his 
farming  the  means  of  paying  for  his  land.  Not  un- 
commonly, after  clearing  the  land,  he  sold  his  im- 
provements to  the  actual  purchaser,  under  the 
customary  usage  or  by  pre-emption  laws.*  With 
the  money  thus  secured  he  would  purchase  new  land 
in  a  remoter  area,  and  thus  establish  himself  as  an 
independent  land -owner.  Under  the  credit  system' 
which  existed  at  the  opening  of  the  period,  the  settler 
purchased  his  land  in  quantities  of  not  less  than  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  at  two  dollars  per  acre,  by 
a  cash  payment  of  fifty  cents  per  acre  and  the  rest  in 

'Hall,   Statistics  of  the   West,    180;    Kingdom,   America,    56; 
Peck,  New  Guide  for  Emigrants  to  the  West  (1837),  1 19-132. 
^  Emerick,  Credit  and  the  Public  Domain. 


1830]  WESTERN   DEVELOPMENT  85 

instalments  running  over  a  period  of  four  years ;  but 
by  the  new  law  of  1820  the  settler  was  permitted  to 
buy  as  small  a  tract  as  eighty  acres  from  the  govern- 
ment at  a  minimum  price  of  a  dollar  and  a  quarter 
per  acre,  without  credit.  The  price  of  labor  in  the 
towns  along  the  Ohio,  coupled  with  the  low  cost  of 
provisions,  made  it  possible  for  even  a  poor  day- 
laborer  from  the  East  to  accumulate  the  necessary 
amount  to  make  his  land-purchase.^ 

Having  in  this  way  settled  down  either  as  a 
squatter  or  as  a  land-owner,  the  pioneer  proceeded 
to  hew  out  a  clearing  in  the  midst  of  the  forest.^ 
Commonly  he  had  selected  his  lands  with  reference 
to  the  value  of  the  soil,  as  indicated  by  the  character 
of  the  hardwoods,  but  this  meant  that  the  labor  of 
clearing  was  the  more  severe  in  good  soil.  Under 
the  sturdy  strokes  of  his  axe  the  light  of  day  was  let 
into  the  little  circle  of  cleared  ground.''  With  the 
aid  of  his  neighbors,  called  together  under  the  social 
attractions  of  a  "raising,"  with  its  inevitable  accom- 
paniment of  whiskey  and  a  "frolic,"  he  erected  his 
log-cabin.  "America,"  wrote  Birkbeck,  "was  bred 
in  a  cabin."  ^ 

Having  secured  a  foothold,  the  settler  next  pro- 
ceeded to  "girdle"  or  "deaden"  an  additional  forest 

'  See,  for  example,  Peck,  New  Guide  for  Emigrants  to  the  West 
(1837),   107-134;  Bradbury,  Travels,  296. 

2  Kingdom,  America,  10,  54,  63;  Flint,  Letters,  206;  McMaster, 
United  States,  V.,  152-155;  Howells,  Life  in  Ohio,  115. 

3  Hall,  Statistics  of  the  West,  98,  loi,  145. 
*  Birkbeck,  Notes  on  Journey,  94. 


86  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

area,  preparatory  to  his  farming  operations.  This 
consisted  in  cutting  a  ring  through  the  bark  around 
the  lower  portion  of  the  trunk,  to  prevent  the  sap 
from  rising.  In  a  short  time  the  withered  branches 
were  ready  for  burning,  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
stumps  the  first  crop  of  corn  and  vegetables  was 
planted.  Often  the  settler  did  not  even  bum  the 
girdled  trees,  but  planted  his  crop  under  the  dead 
foliage. 

In  regions  nearer  to  the  east,  as  in  western  New 
York,  it  was  sometimes  possible  to  repay  a  large 
portion  of  the  cost  of  clearing  by  the  sale  of  pot 
and  pearl  ashes  extracted  from  the  logs,  which  were 
brought  together  into  huge  piles  for  burning.*  This 
was  accomplished  by  a  "log-rolling,"  under  the 
united  efforts  of  the  neighbors,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
"  raising. "  More  commonly  in  the  west  the  logs  were 
wasted  by  burning,  except  such  as  were  split  into 
rails,  which,  laid  one  above  another,  made  the  zig- 
zag "worm-fences"  for  the  protection  of  the  fields 
of  the  pioneer. 

When  a  clearing  was  sold  to  a  later  comer,  fifty  or 
sixty  dollars,  in  addition  to  the  government  price  of 
land,  was  commonly  charged  for  forty  acres,  enclosed 
and  partly  cleared.^  It  was  estimated  that  the  cost 
of  a  farm  of  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  at  the 
edge  of  the  prairie  in  Illinois,  at  this  time,  would  be 
divided  as  follows :  for  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 

*  Life  of  ThurlowWeed  (Autobiography),  I.,  11. 

*  Kingdom,  America,  10,  54. 


1830]  WESTERN   DEVELOPMENT  87 

of  prairie,  two  hundred  dollars;  for  fencing  it  into 
four  forty-acre  fields  with  rail-fences,  one  hundred 
and  sixty  dollars ;  for  breaking  it  up  with  a  plough, 
two  dollars  per  acre,  or  three  hundred  and  twenty 
dollars ;  eighty  acres  of  timber  land  and  eighty 
acres  of  pasture  prairie,  two  hundred  dollars.  Thus, 
with  cabins,  stables,  etc.,  it  cost  a  little  over  a 
thousand  dollars  to  secure  an  improved  farm  of  three 
hundred  and  twenty  acres.*  But  the  mass  of  the 
early  settlers  were  too  poor  to  afford  such  an  outlay, 
and  were  either  squatters  within  a  little  clearing,  or 
owners  of  eighty  acres,  which  they  hoped  to  increase 
by  subsequent  purchase.  Since  they  worked  with 
the  labor  of  their  own  hands  and  that  of  their  sons, 
the  cash  outlay  was  practically  limited  to  the 
original  cost  of  the  lands  and  articles  of  husbandry. 
The  cost  of  an  Indiana  farm  of  eighty  acres  of 
land,  with  two  horses,  two  or  three  cows,  a  few  hogs 
and  sheep,  and  farming  utensils,  was  estimated  at 
about  four  hundred  dollars. 

The  peculiar  skill  required  of  the  axeman  who 
entered  the  hardwood  forests,  together  with  readi- 
ness to  undergo  the  privations  of  the  life,  made  the 
backwoodsman  in  a  sense  an  expert  engaged  in  a 
special  calling.^     Frequently  he  was  the  descendant 

'J.  M.  Peck,  Guide  for  Emigrants  (1831),  183-188;  cf.  Birk- 
beck  (London,  1818),  Letters,  45,  46.  69-73;  S.  H.  Collins,  Emi- 
grant's  Guide;  Tanner  (publisher) ,  View  of  the  Valley  of  the  Miss. 
(1834),  232;  J.  Woods,  Two  Years'  Residence,  146,  172. 

^  J.  Hall,  Statistics  of  the  West,  10 1;  cf.  Chastellux,  Travels  in 
North  America  (London,  1787),  L,  44. 


88  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

of  generations  of  pioneers,  who,  on  successive  fron- 
tiers, from  the  neighborhood  of  the  Atlantic  coast 
towards  the  interior,  had  cut  and  burned  the  forest, 
fought  the  Indians,  and  pushed  forward  the  line  of 
civilization.  He  bore  the  marks  of  the  struggle  in 
his  face,  made  sallow  by  living  in  the  shade  of  the 
forest,  "shut  from  the  common  air,"  *  and  in  a  con- 
stitution often  racked  by  malarial  fever.  Dirt  and 
squalor  were  too  frequently  found  in  the  squatter's 
cabin,  and  education  and  the  refinements  of  life 
were  denied  to  him.  Often  shiftless  and  indolent, 
in  the  intervals  between  his  tasks  of  forest-felling 
he  was  fonder  of  hunting  than  of  a  settled  agricult- 
ural life.  With  his  rifle  he  eked  out  his  sustenance, 
and  the  peltries  furnished  him  a  little  ready  cash. 
His  few  cattle  grazed  in  the  surrounding  forest,  and 
his  hogs  fed  on  its  mast. 

The  backwoodsman  of  this  type  represented  the 
outer  edge  of  the  advance  of  civilization.  Where 
settlement  was  closer,  co-operative  activity  possible, 
and  little  villages,  with  the  mill  and  retail  stores, 
existed,  conditions  of  life  were  ameliorated,  and  a 
better  type  of  pioneer  was  found.  Into  such  regions 
circuit-riders  and  wandering  preachers  carried  the 
beginnings  of  church  organization,  and  schools  were 
started.  But  the  frontiersmen  proper  constitutejd  a 
moving  class,  ever  ready  to  sell  out  their  clearings  in 

'  Birkbeck,  Notes  on  Journey,   105-114. 

^  Babcock,  Forty  Years  of  Pioneer  Life  ("Journals  and  Cor- 
respondence of  J.  M.  Peck"),  10 1. 


1830]  WESTERN   DEVELOPMENT  89 

order  to  press  on  to  a  new  frontier,  where  game  more 
abounded,  soil  was  reported  to  be  better,  and  where 
the  forest  furnished  a  welcome  retreat  from  the  un- 
congenial encroachments  of  civilization.  If,  how- 
ever, he  was  thrifty  and  forehanded,  the  backwoods- 
man remained  on  his  clearing,  improving  his  farm 
and  sharing  in  the  change  from  wilderness  life. 

Behind  the  type  of  the  backwoodsman  came  the 
type  of  the  pioneer  farmer.  Equipped  with  a  little 
capital,  he  often,  as  we  have  seen,  purchased  the 
clearing,  and  thus  avoided  some  of  the  initial  hard- 
ships of  pioneer  life.  In  the  course  of  a  few  years, 
as  saw-mills  were  erected,  frame-houses  took  the 
place  of  the  log-cabins ;  the  rough  clearing,  with  its 
stumps,  gave  way  to  well -tilled  fields;  orchards 
were  planted ;  live-stock  roamed  over  the  enlarged 
clearing ;  and  an  agricultural  surplus  was  ready  for 
export.  Soon  the  adventurous  speculator  offered 
corner  lots  in  a  new  town-site,  and  the  rude  begin- 
nings of  a  city  were  seen. 

Thus  western  occupation  advanced  in  a  series  of 
waves :  *  the  Indian  was  sought  by  the  fur-trader ;  the 
fur-trader  was  followed  by  the  frontiersman,  whose 
live-stock  exploited  the  natural  grasses  and  the 
acorns  of  the  forest ;  next  came  the  wave  of  primi- 
tive agriculture,  followed  by  more  intensive  farming 

'  J.  M.  Peck,  New  Guide  to  the  West  (Cincinnati,  1848),  chap. 
iv.;  T.  Flint,  Geography  and  Hist,  of  the  Western  States,  350 
et  seq.;  J.  Flint,  Letters  from  America,  206;  cf.  Turner,  Signifi- 
cance of  the  Frontier  in  American  History,  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc, 
Report  1893,  p.  214;  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  152-160. 


90  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

and  city  life.  All  the  stages  of  social  development 
went  on  under  the  eye  of  the  traveller  as  he  passed 
from  the  frontier  towards  the  east.  Such  were  the 
forces  which  were  steadily  pushing  their  way  into 
the  American  wilderness,  as  they  had  pushed  for 
generations. 

While  thus  the  frontier  folk  spread  north  of  the 
Ohio  and  up  the  Missouri,  a  diflerent  movement  was 
in  progress  in  the  Gulf  region  of  the  west.  In  the 
beginning  precisely  the  same  type  of  occupation  was 
to  be  seen :  the  poorer  classes  of  southern  emigrants 
cut  out  their  clearings  along  rivers  that  flowed  to 
the  Gulf  and  to  the  lower  ^Mississippi,  and,  with  the 
opening  of  this  decade,  went  in  increasing  numbers 
into  Texas,  where  enterprising  Americans  secured 
concessions  from  the  Mexican  government.* 

Almost  all  of  the  most  recently  occupied  area  was 
but  thinly  settled.  It  represented  the  movement  of 
the  backwoodsman,  with  axe  and  rifle,  advancing  to 
the  conquest  of  the  forest.  But  closer  to  the  old 
settlements  a  more  highly  developed  agriculture  was 
to  be  seen.  Hodgson,  in  1821,  describes  plantations 
in  northern  Alabama  in  lands  ceded  by  the  Indians 
in  1 81 8.  Though  settled  less  than  two  years,  there 
were  within  a  few  miles  five  schools  and  ioux  places 
of  worship.     One  plantation  had  one  hundred  acres 


'Garrison,  Texas,  chaps,  xiii.,  xiv.;  Wooten  (editor),  Com- 
prehensive Hist,  of  Texas,  I.,  chaps,  viii.,  ix.;  Texas  State 
Hist.  Assoc,  Quarterly,  VII.,  29,  289;  Bugbee,  "Texas  Fron- 
tier," in  Southern  Hist.  Assoc,  Publications,  IV.,  106. 


1830]  WESTERN   DEVELOPMENT  91 

in  cotton  and  one  hundred  and  ten  in  corn,  although 
a  year  and  a  half  before  it  was  wilderness.* 

But  while  this  population  of  log -cabin  pioneers 
was  entering  the  Gulf  plains,  caravans  of  slave-hold- 
ing planters  were  advancing  from  the  seaboard  to 
the  occupation  of  the  cotton-lands  of  the  same  region. 
As  the  free  farmers  of  the  interior  had  been  replaced 
in  the  upland  country  of  the  south  by  the  slave- 
holding  planters,  so  now  the  frontiersmen  of  the 
southwest  were  pushed  back  from  the  more  fertile 
lands  into  the  pine  hills  and  barrens.  Not  only  was 
the  pioneer  unable  to  refuse  the  higher  price  which 
was  offered  him  for  his  clearing,  but,  in  the  competi- 
tive bidding  of  the  public  land  sales, ^  the  wealthier 
planter  secured  the  desirable  soils.  Social  forces 
worked  to  the  same  end.  When  the  pioneer  invited 
his  slave-holding  neighbor  to  a  "raising,"  it  grated 
on  his  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things  to  have  the  guest 
appear  with  gloves,  directing  the  gang  of  slaves 
which  he  contributed  to  the  function.^  Little  by 
little,  therefore,  the  old  pioneer  life  tended  to  retreat 
to  the  less  desirable  lands,  leaving  the  slave-holder 
in  possession  of  the  rich  "buck-shot"  soils  that 
spread  over  central  Alabama  and  Mississippi  and 

'  Hodgson,  Letters  from  North  Am.,  I.,  269;  see  Riley  (editor), 
"  Autobiography  of  Lincecum,"  in  Miss.  Hist.  Soc,  Publications, 
VIII.,  443,  for  the  wanderings  of  a  southern  pioneer  in  the 
recently  opened  Indian  lands  of  Georgia  and  the  southwest  in 
these  years. 

^  Northern  Ala.  (pubHshed  by  Smith  &  De  Land),  249;  Brown, 
Hist,  oj  Ala.,  129-131;  Brown,  Lower  South,  24-26. 

'  Smedes,  A  Southern  Planter,  67. 


92  RISE   OF  THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

the  fat  alluvium  that  lined  the  eastern  bank  of 
the  Mississippi.  Even  to-day  the  counties  of  dense 
negro  population  reveal  the  results  of  this  move- 
ment of  segregation. 

By  the  side  of  the  picture  of  the  advance  of  the 
pioneer  farmer,  bearing  his  household  goods  in  his 
canvas-covered  wagon  to  his  new  home  across  the 
Ohio,  must  therefore  be  placed  the  picture  of  the 
southern  planter  crossing  through  the  forests  of 
western  Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi,  or  pass- 
ing over  the  free  state  of  Illinois  to  the  Missouri 
Valley,  in  his  family  carriage,  with  servants,  packs  of 
hunting-dogs,  and  a  train  of  slaves,  their  nightly 
camp-fires  lighting  up  the  wilderness  where  so  re- 
cently the  Indian  hunter  had  held  possession.^ 

But  this  new  society  had  a  characteristic  western 
flavor.  The  old  patriarchal  type  of  slavery  along 
the  seaboard  was  modified  by  the  western  conditions 
in  the  midst  of  which  the  slave-holding  interest  was 
now  lodged.  Planters,  as  well  as  pioneer  farmers, 
were  exploiting  the  wilderness  and  building  a  new  so- 
ciety under  characteristic  western  influences.  Rude 
strength,  a  certain  coarseness  of  life,  and  aggressive- 
ness characterized  this  society,  as  it  did  the  whole  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley.^    Slavery  furnished  a  new  in- 

'  Hodgson,  Letters  from  North  Am.,  I.,  138;  Niles'  Register, 
XLIV.,  222;  Smedes,  A  Southern  Planter,  52-54;  Flint,  Geog- 
raphy and  History  of  the  Western  States,  II.,  350,  379;  Bemhard, 
Duke  of  Saxe -Weimar,  Travels,  II.,  chaps,  xvi.,  xvii. 

^  Baldwin,  Flush  Times  in  Ala.;  of.  Gilmer,  Sketches  of  Geor- 
gia, etc. 


1830]  WESTERN   DEVELOPMENT  93 

gredient  for  western  forces  to  act  upon.  The  system 
took  on  a  more  commercial  tinge:  the  plantation 
had  to  be  cleared  and  made  profitable  as  a  purely 
business  enterprise. 

The  slaves  were  purchased  in  considerable  num- 
bers from  the  older  states  instead  of  being  inherited 
in  the  family.  Slave-dealers  passed  to  the  south- 
west, with  their  coffles  of  negroes  brought  from  the 
outworn  lands  of  the  old  south.  It  was  estimated 
in  1832  that  Virginia  annually  exported  six  thou- 
sand slaves  for  sale  to  other  states.^  An  English 
traveller  reported  in  1823  that  every  year  from  ten 
to  fifteen  thousand  slaves  were  sold  from  the  states 
of  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  and  sent  to 
the  south. ^  At  the  same  time,  illicit  importation 
of  slaves  through  New  Orleans  reached  an  amount 
estimated  at  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  a  year.^ 
It  was  not  until  the  next  decade  that  this  incoming 
tide  of  slaves  reached  its  height,  but  by  1830  it  was 
clearly  marked  and  was  already  transforming  the 
southwest.  Mississippi  doubled  the  number  of  her 
slaves  in  the  decade,  and  Alabama  nearly  trebled 
hers.  In  the  same  period  the  number  of  slaves  of 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina  increased 
but  slightly. 

As  the  discussion  of  the  south  has  already  made 
clear,  the  explanation  of  this  transformation  of  the 

'  Collins,  Domestic  Slave  Trade,  50. 

^  Blane,  Excursion  through  U.  S.,  226;  Hodgson,  Letters  from 
North  Am.,  I.,  194.  ^  Collins,  Domestic  Slave  Trade,  44. 


94  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1820 

southwest  into  a  region  of  slave-holding  planters  lies 
in  the  spread  of  cotton  into  the  Gulf  plains.  In  181 1 
this  region  raised  but  five  million  pounds  of  cotton ; 
ten  years  later  its  product  was  sixty  million  pounds ; 
and  in  1826  its  fields  were  white  with  a  crop  of 
over  one  hundred  and  fifty  milHon  pounds.  It  soon 
outstripped  the  seaboard  south.  Alabama,  which 
had  practically  no  cotton  crop  in  181 1,  and  only 
ten  miUion  pounds  in  182 1,  had  in  1834  eighty-five 
million  pounds/  a  larger  crop  than  either  South 
Carolina  or  Georgia. 

Soon  after  1830  the  differences  between  the 
northern  and  southern  portions  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  were  still  further  accentuated,  (i)  From  New 
York  and  New  England  came  a  tide  of  settlement, 
in  the  thirties,  which  followed  the  Erie  Canal  and 
the  Great  Lakes,  and  began  to  occupy  the  prairie 
lands  which  had  been  avoided  by  the  southern  axe- 
men. This  region  then  became  an  extension  of  the 
greater  New  England  already  to  be  seen  in  New 
York.  (2)  The  southern  pioneers  in  the  northwest 
formed  a  transitional  zone  between  this  northern  area 
and  the  slave  states  south  of  the  Ohio.  (3)  In  the 
Gulf  plains  a  greater  south  was  in  process  of  forma- 
tion, but  by  no  means  completely  established.  As 
yet  it  was  a  mixture  of  pioneer  and  planter,  slave 
and  free,  profoundly  affected  by  its  western  traits.^ 

'  See  table  of  cotton  crop,  ante,  p.  47. 

*  Curry,  "A  Settlement  in  East  Ala.,"  in  Am.  Hist.  Magazine, 
II.,  203. 


1830]  WESTERN   DEVELOPMENT  95 

The  different  states  of  the  south  were  steadily  send- 
ing in  bands  of  colonists.  In  Alabama,  for  example, 
the  Georgians  settled,  as  a  rule,  in  the  east;  the 
Tennesseeans,  moving  from  the  great  bend  of  the 
Tennessee  River,  were  attracted  to  the  northern  and 
middle  section;  and  the  Virginians  and  Carolinians 
went  to  the  west  and  southwest,  following  the  bot- 
tom-lands near  the  rivers.* 

'  Brown,  Hist,  of  Ala,,  129,  130;   Northern  Ala.  (published  by 
Smith  &  De  Land),  pt.  iv.,  243  et  seq. 

VOL.    XIV. — 8 


CHAPTER   VII 

WESTERN  COMMERCE  AND  IDEALS 
(1820-1830) 

BY  1820  the  west  had  developed  the  beginnings 
of  many  of  the  cities  which  have  since  ruled 
over  the  region.  Buffalo  and  Detroit  were  hardly 
more  than  villages  until  the  close  of  this  period. 
They  waited  for  the  rise  of  steam  navigation  on 
the  Great  Lakes  and  for  the  opening  of  the  prairies. 
Cleveland,  also,  was  but  a  hamlet  during  most  of  the 
decade;  but  by  1830  the  construction  of  the  canal 
connecting  the  Cuyahoga  with  the  Scioto  increased 
its  prosperity,  and  its  harbor  began  to  profit  by  its 
natural  advantages.*  Chicago  and  Milwaukee  were 
mere  fur -trading  stations  in  the  Indian  country. 
Pittsburg,  at  the  head  of  the  Ohio,  was  losing  its  old 
pre-eminence  as  the  gateway  to  the  west,  but  was 
finding  recompense  in  the  development  of  its  manu- 
factures. By  1830  its  population  was  about  twelve 
thousand.^  Foundries,  rolling-mills,  nail -factories, 
steam-engine  shops,  and  distilleries  were  busily  at 

'Whittlesey,  Early  Hist,  of  Cleveland,  456;  Kennedy,  Hist, 
of  Cleveland,  chap.  viii. 

*  Thurston,  Pittsburg  and  Allegheny  in  tJie  Centennial  Year,  61. 


i83ol      WESTERN  TRADE   AND   IDEALS  97 

work,  and  the  city,  dingy  with  the  smoke  of  soft 
coal,  was  already  dubbed  the  "young  Manchester" 
or  the  "  Birmingham  "  of  America.  By  1830  Wheel- 
ing had  intercepted  much  of  the  overland  trade  and 
travel  to  the  Ohio,  profiting  by  the  old  National 
Road  and  the  wagon  trade  from  Baltimore.* 

Cincinnati  was  rapidly  rising  to  the  position  of 
the  "  Queen  City  of  the  West."  Situated  where  the 
river  reached  with  a  great  bend  towards  the  interior 
of  the  northwest,  in  the  rich  farming  country  be- 
tween the  two  Miamis,  and  opposite  the  Licking 
River,  it  was  the  commercial  centre  of  a  vast  and 
fertile  region  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky;^  and  by  1830, 
with  a  population  of  nearly  twenty-five  thousand 
souls,  it  was  the  largest  city  of  the  west,  with  the 
exception  of  New  Orleans.  The  centre  of  steamboat- 
building,  it  also  received  extensive  imports  of  goods 
from  the  east  and  exported  the  surplus  crops  of 
Ohio  and  adjacent  parts  of  Kentucky.  Its  principal 
industry,  however,  was  pork-packing,  from  which  it 
won  the  name  of  "Porkopolis"  ^  Louisville,  at  the 
falls  of  the  Ohio,  was  an  important  place  of  trans- 
shipment, and  the  export  centre  for  large  quanti- 
ties of  tobacco.  There  were  considerable  manufact- 
ures of  rope  and  bagging,  products  of  the  Kentucky 
hemp-fields ;  and  new  cotton  and  woollen  factories 


*  Martin,  Gazetteer  of  Va.,  407. 
^  Melish,  Information  to  Emigrants,  108. 

^  Drake  and  Mansfield,  Cincinnati  iji  1826,  p.  70;    Winter  in 
the  West,  I.,  115. 

VOL.  XIV. — 7 


98  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

were  struggling  for  existence/  St.  Louis  occupied  a 
unique  position,  as  the  entrepot  of  the  important 
fur-trade  of  the  upper  Mississippi  and  the  vast  water 
system  of  the  Missouri,  as  well  as  the  outfitting-point 
for  the  Missouri  settlements.  It  was  the  capital  of 
the  far  west,  and  the  commercial  centre  for  Illinois. 
Its  population  at  the  close  of  the  decade  was  about 
six  thousand. 

Only  a  few  villages  lay  along  the  Mississippi  below 
St.  Louis  until  the  traveller  reached  New  Orleans, 
the  emporium  of  the  whole  Mississippi  Valley.  As 
yet  the  direct  effect  of  the  Erie  Canal  was  chiefly 
limited  to  the  state  of  New  York.  The  great  bulk  of 
western  exports  passed  down  the  tributaries  of  the 
Mississippi  to  this  city,  which  was,  therefore,  the 
centre  of  foreign  exports  for  the  valley,  as  well  as 
the  port  from  which  the  coastwise  trade  in  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  whole  interior  departed.  In  1830  its 
population  was  nearly  fifty  thousand. 

The  rise  of  an  agricultural  surplus  was  transform- 
ing the  west  and  preparing  a  new  influence  in  the 
nation.  It  was  this  surplus  and  the  demand  for 
markets  that  developed  the  cities  just  mentioned. 
As  they  grew,  the  price  of  land  in  their  neighborhood 
increased ;  roads  radiated  into  the  surrounding  coun- 
try; and  farmers,  whose  crops  had  been  almost 
worthless  from  the  lack  of  transportation  facilities, 
now  found  it  possible  to  market  their  surplus  at  a 

*  Durrett,  Centenary  of  Louisville  (Filson  Club,  Publications, 
No.  8),  50-101;  Louisville  Directory,  1832,  p.  131. 


1830]      WESTERN   TRADE   AND   IDEALS  99 

small  profit.  While  the  west  was  thus  learning  the 
advantages  of  a  home  market,  the  extension  of  cot- 
ton and  sugar  cultivation  in  the  south  and  south- 
west gave  it  a  new  and  valuable  market.  More 
and  more,  the  planters  came  to  rely  upon  the  north- 
west for  their  food  supplies  and  for  the  mules  and 
horses  for  their  fields.  Cotton  became  the  engross- 
ing interest  of  the  plantation  belt,  and,  while  the 
full  effects  of  this  differentiation  of  industry  did  not 
appear  in  the  decade  of  this  volume,  the  beginnings 
were  already  visible.*  In  1835,  Pitkin^  reckoned 
the  value  of  the  domestic  and  foreign  exports  of  the 
interior  as  far  in  excess  of  the  whole  exports  of  the 
United  States  in  1790.  Within  forty  years  the  de- 
velopment of  the  interior  had  brought  about  the 
economic  independence  of  the  United  States. 

During  most  of  the  decade  the  merchandise  to 
supply  the  interior  was  brought  laboriously  across 
the  mountains  by  the  Pennsylvania  turnpikes  and 
the  old  National  Road ;  or,  in  the  case  of  especially 
heavy  freight,  was  carried  along  the  Atlantic  coast 
into  the  gulf  and  up  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  by 
steamboats.  The  cost  of  transportation  in  the 
wagon  trade  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg  and 
Baltimore  to  Wheeling  placed  a  heavy  tax  upon  the 
consumer.'  In  181 7  the  freight  charge  from  Phila- 
delphia to  Pittsburg  was  sometimes  as  high  as  seven 

1  Callender,  "  Early  Transportation  and  Banking  Enterprises 
of  the  States,"  in  Quarterly  Journal  of  Econ.,  XVII.,  3-54. 
^  Pitkin,  Statistical  View  (1835),  534. 
^ Niks'  Register,  XX.,  180. 


loo  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

to  ten  dollars  a  hundredweight;  a  few  years  later 
it  became  from  four  to  six  dollars;  and  in  1823  it 
had  fallen  to  three  dollars.  It  took  a  month  to 
wagon  merchandise  from  Baltimore  to  central  Ohio. 
Transportation  companies,  running  four-horse  freight 
wagons,  conducted  a  regular  business  on  these  turn- 
pikes between  the  eastern  and  western  states.  In 
1820  over  three  thousand  wagons  ran  between  Phila- 
delphia and  Pittsburg,  transporting  merchandise 
valued  at  about  eighteen  million  dollars  annu- 
ally.^ 

The  construction  of  the  National  Road  reduced 
freight  rates  to  nearly  one-half  what  they  were  at 
the  close  of  the  War  of  1812  ;  and  the  introduction  of 
steam  navigation  from  New  Orleans  up  the  Missis- 
sippi cut  water-rates  by  that  route  to  one-third  of 
the  former  charge.^  Nevertheless,  there  was  a  crying 
need  for  internal  improvements,  and  particularly  for 
canals,  to  provide  an  outlet  for  the  increasing  prod- 
ucts of  the  west.  "Even  in  the  country  where  I 
reside,  not  eighty  miles  from  tidewater,"  said 
Tucker,' of  Virginia,  in  1818,  "it  takes  the  farmer 
one  bushel  of  wheat  to  pay  the  expense  of  carrying 
two  to  a  seaport  town." 

*  Birkbeck,  Journey  from  Va.,  128;  Ogden,  Letters  from  iJte 
West,  8;  Cobbett,  Year's  Residence,  337;  Evans,  Pedestrious 
Tour,  145;  Philadelphia  in  1824,  45;  Searight,  Old  Pike,  107, 
112;  Mills,  Treatise  on  Inland  Navigation  (1S20),  89,  90,  93, 
95-97;  Journal  of  Polit.  Econ.,  VIII.,  36. 

*  Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  991 ;  cf.  Fearon,  Sketches, 
260;  Niles'  Register,  XXV.,  95 ;  Cincinnati  Christian  Journal,  July 
27,  1830.  ^  Annals  of  Cong.,  15  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  1126. 


1830]      WESTERN   TRADE   AND    IDEALS  loi 

The  bulk  of  the  crop,  as  compared  with  its  value, 
practically  prevented  transportation  by  land  farther 
than  a  hundred  miles/  It  is  this  that  helps  to  ex- 
plain the  attention  which  the  interior  first  gave  to 
making  whiskey  and  raising  live-stock;  the  former 
carried  the  crop  in  a  small  bulk  with  high  value, 
while  the  Hve -stock  could  walk  to  a  market.  Until 
after  the  War  of  181 2,  the  cattle  of  the  Ohio  Valley 
were  driven  to  the  seaboard,  chiefly  to  Philadelphia 
or  Baltimore.  Travellers  were  astonished  to  see  on 
the  highway  droves  of  four  or  five  thousand  hogs, 
going  to  an  eastern  market.  It  was  estimated  that 
over  a  hundred  thousand  hogs  were  driven  east  an- 
nually from  Kentucky  alone.  Kentucky  hog-drivers 
also  passed  into  Tennessee,  Virginia,  and  the  Caro- 
linas  with  their  droves.^  The  swine  lived  on  the  nuts 
and  acorns  of  the  forest ;  thus  they  were  peculiarly 
suited  to  pioneer  conditions.  At  first  the  cattle 
were  taken  to  the  plantations  of  the  Potomac  to 
fatten  for  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia,  much  in  the 
same  way  that,  in  recent  times,  the  cattle  of  the 
Great  Plains  are  brought  to  the  feeding-grounds  in 
the  corn  belt  of  Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  Iowa.'  Tow- 
ards the  close  of  the  decade,  however,  the  feeding- 
grounds  shifted  into  Ohio,  and  the  pork-packing 
industry,  as  we  have  seen,  found  its  centre  at  Cin- 

^  McMaster,   United  States,  III.,  464. 

'Life  of  Ephraiifi  Cutler,  89;  Birkbeck,  Journey,  24;  Blane, 
Excursion  through  U.  S.  (London,  1824),  90;  Atlantic  Monthly, 
XXVI.,  170. 

^  Michaux,  Travels,  191;  Palmer,  Journal  of  Travels,  36. 


102  RISE    OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

cinnati/  the  most  important  source  of  supply  for 
the  hams  and  bacon  and  salt  pork  which  passed 
down  the  Mississippi  to  furnish  a  large  share  of  the 
plantation  food.  From  Kentucky  and  the  rest  of 
the  Ohio  Valley  droves  of  mules  and  horses  passed 
through  the  Tennessee  Valley  to  the  south  to  supply 
the  plantations.  Statistics  at  Cumberland  Gap  for 
1828  gave  the  value  of  Hve-stock  passing  the  turn- 
pike gate  there  at  $1,167,000.'  Senator  Hayne,  of 
South  CaroHna,  declared  that  in  1824  the  south  was 
supplied  from  the  west,  through  Saluda  Gap,  with 
live -stock,  horses,  cattle,  and  hogs  to  the  amount  of 
over  a  miUion  dollars  a  year.' 

But  the  outlet  from  the  west  over  the  roads  to 
the  east  and  south  was  but  a  subordinate  element 
in  the  internal  commerce.  Down  the  Mississippi 
floated  a  multitude  of  heavily  freighted  craft :  lum- 
ber rafts  from  the  Allegheny,  the  old-time  arks,  with 
cattle,  flour,  and  bacon,  hay-boats,  keel-boats,  and 
skiffs,  all  mingled  with  the  steamboats  which  plied 
the  western  waters.''  Flatboatmen,  raftsmen,  and 
deck-hands  constituted  a  turbulent  and  reckless 
population,  living  on  the  country  through  which 
they  passed,  fighting  and  drinking  in  true   "half- 

'  Hall,  Statistics  of  the  West  (1836),  145-147. 

^Emigrants'  and  Travellers'  Guide  to  the  West  (1834),  194. 

'  Speech  in  Senate  in  1832,  Register  of  Debates  in  Cong.,  VIII., 
pt.  i.,  80;  cf.  Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  141 1. 

*  Flint,  Recollections  of  the  Last  Ten  Years,  loi-iio;  E.  S. 
Thomas,  Reminiscences,  I.,  290-293;  Hall,  Statistics  of  the  West 
(1836),  236;  Howells,  Life  in  Ohio,  85;  Schultz,  Travels,  129; 
Hulbert,  Historic  Highways,  IX.,  chaps,  iii.,  iv.,  v. 


1830]       WESTERN   TRADE    AND    IDEALS  103 

horse,  half -alligator  "  style.  Prior  to  the  steamboat, 
all  of  the  commerce  from  New  Orleans  to  the  upper 
country  was  carried  on  in  about  twenty  barges, 
averaging  a  hundred  tons  each,  and  making  one  trip 
a  year.  Although  the  steamboat  did  not  drive  out 
the  other  craft,  it  revolutionized  the  commerce  of 
the  river.  Whereas  it  had  taken  the  keel-boats 
thirty  to  forty  days  to  descend  from  Louisville  to 
New  Orleans,  and  about  ninety  days  to  ascend  the 
fifteen  hundred  miles  of  navigation  by  poling  and 
warping  up-stream,  the  steamboat  had  shortened 
the  time,  by  1822,  to  seven  days  down  and  sixteen 
days  up.'  As  the  steamboats  ascended  the  various 
tributaries  of  the  Mississippi  to  gather  the  products 
of  the  growing  west,  the  pioneers  came  more  and 
more  to  realize  the  importance  of  the  invention. 
They  resented  the  idea  of  the  monopoly  which  Ful- 
ton and  Livingston  wished  to  enforce  prior  to  the 
decision  of  Chief-Justice  Marshall,  in  the  case  of 
Gibbons  vs.  Ogden — a  decision  of  vital  interest  to 
the  whole  interior.^ 

They  saw  in  the  steamboat  a  symbol  of  their  own 
development.  A  writer  in  the  Western  Monthly  Re- 
view,^ unconsciously  expressed  the  very  spirit  of  the 

^Annals  of  Con^.,  17  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  407;  McMaster,  United 
States,  v.,  166;  National  Gazette,  September  26,  1823  (list  of 
steamboats,  rates  of  passage,  estimate  of  products) ;  Blane, 
Excursion  through  the  U.  S.,  119;  Niles'  Register,  XXV.,  95. 

^  Thomas,  Travels  through  the  Western  Country,  62;  Alexandria 
Herald,  June  23,  181 7. 

*  Timothy  Flint's  Western  Monthly  Review  (May,  1827),  I., 
25;  William  Bullock,  Sketch  of  a  Journey,  132. 


I04  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

self -contented,  hustling,  materialistic  west  in  these 
words : ' '  An  Atlantic  cit ,  who  talks  of  us  under  the  name 
of  backwoodsmen,  would  not  believe,  that  such  fairy- 
structures  of  oriental  gorgeousness  and  splendor,  as 
the  Washington,  the  Florida,  the  Walk  in  the  Water, 
the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  etc.  etc.,  had  ever  existed  in 
the  imaginative  brain  of  a  romancer,  much  less,  that 
they  w^ere  actually  in  existence,  rushing  down  the 
Mississippi,  as  on  the  wings  of  the  wind,  or  plowing 
up  between  the  forests,  and  walking  against  the 
mighty  current  'as  things  of  life,'  bearing  specula- 
tors, merchants,  dandies,  fine  ladies,  every  thing 
real,  and  every  thing  affected,  in  the  form  of  human- 
ity, with  pianos,  and  stocks  of  novels,  and  cards,  and 
dice,  and  flirting,  and  love-making,  and  drinking, 
and  champaigne,  and  on  the  deck,  perhaps,  three 
hundred  fellows,  who  have  seen  alligators,  and 
neither  fear  whiskey,  nor  gun-powder.  A  steamboat, 
coming  from  New  Orleans,  brings  to  the  remotest 
villages  of  our  streams,  and  the  very  doors  of  the 
cabins,  a  little  Paris,  a  section  of  Broadway,  or  a 
slice  of  Philadelphia,  to  ferment  in  the  minds  of  our 
young  people,  the  innate  propensity  for  fashions  and 
finery.  Within  a  day's  journey  of  us,  three  distinct 
canals  are  in  respectable  progress  towards  comple- 
tion. .  .  .  Cincinnati  will  soon  be  the  centre  of  the 
'celestial  empire,'  as  the  Chinese  say;  and  instead 
of  encountering  the  storms,  the  sea  sickness,  and 
dangers  of  a  passage  from  the  gulf  of  Mexico  to  the 
Atlantic,  whenever  the  Erie  canal  shall  be  com- 


1830]      WESTERN   TRADE   AND   IDEALS         105 

pleted,  the  opulent  southern  planters  will  take  their 
families,  their  dogs  and  parrots,  through  a  world  of 
forests,  from  New  Orleans  to  New  York,  giving  us 
a  call  by  the  way.  When  they  are  more  acquainted 
with  us,  their  voyage  will  often  terminate  here." 

By  1830  the  produce  which  reached  New  Orleans 
from  the  Mississippi  Valley  amounted  to  about 
twenty-six  million  dollars.^  In  1822  three  million 
dollars'  worth  of  goods  was  estimated  to  have  passed 
the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  on  the  way  to  market,  repre- 
senting much  of  the  surplus  of  the  Ohio  Valley.  Of 
this,  pork  amounted  to  $1,000,000  in  value;  flour 
to  $900,000;  tobacco  to  $600,000;  and  whiskey  to 
$500,000.^  The  inventory  of  products  reveals  the 
Mississippi  Valley  as  a  vast  colonial  society,  pro- 
ducing the  raw  materials  of  a  simple  and  primitive 
agriculture.  The  beginnings  of  manufacture  in  the 
cities,  however,  promised  to  bring  about  a  move- 
ment for  industrial  independence  in  the  west.  In 
spite  of  evidences  of  growing  wealth,  there  was  such 
a  decline  in  agricultural  prices  that,  for  the  farmer 
who  did  not  live  on  the  highways  of  commerce,  it 
was  almost  unprofitable  to  raise  wheat  for  the  mar- 
ket. 

An  Ohio  pioneer  of  this  time  relates  that  at  the 
beginning  of  the  decade  fifty  cents  a  bushel  was  a 


'  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  XVII.,  20;  Pitkin,  Statistical 
Vieiv  (ed.  of  1835),  534-536. 

"^National  Republican,  March  7,  1823;  cf.  National  Gazette, 
September  26,  1823;  Blane,  Excursion  through  the  U.S.,  iig. 


io6  RISE   OF   THE   NEW  WEST  [1820 

great  price  for  wheat  at  the  river;  and  as  two 
horses  and  a  man  were  required  for  four  days  to 
make  the  journey  of  thirty -five  miles  to  the  Ohio, 
in  good  weather,  with  thirty-five  or  forty  bushels 
of  wheat,  and  a  great  deal  longer  if  the  roads  were 
bad,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  farmer  could 
realize  more  than  twenty-five  cents  in  cash  for  it. 
But  there  was  no  sale  for  it  in  cash.  The  nominal 
price  for  it  in  trade  was  usually  thirty  cents.  ^  When 
wheat  brought  twenty-five  cents  a  bushel  in  Illinois 
in  1825,  it  sold  at  over  eighty  cents  in  Petersburg, 
Virginia,  and  flour  was  six  dollars  a  barrel  at 
Charleston,  South  Carolina.^ 

These  are  the  economic  conditions  that  assist  in  un- 
derstanding the  political  attitude  of  western  leaders 
like  Henry  Clay  and  Andrew  Jackson.  The  cry  of 
the  east  for  protection  to  infant  industries  was  swelled 
by  the  little  cities  of  the  west,  and  the  demand  for 
a  home  market  found  its  strongest  support  beyond 
the  Alleghanies.  Internal  improvements  and  lower 
rates  of  transportation  were  essential  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  westerners.  Largely  a  debtor  class, 
in  need  of  capital,  credit,  and  an  expansion  of  the 
currency,  they  resented  attempts  to  restrain  the 
reckless  state  banking  which  their  optimism  fostered. 

But  the  political  ideals  and  actions  of  the  west 


*  Howells,  Life  in  Ohio,  138;  see  M'CuIloch,  Commercial 
Dictionary,  I.,  683 ,  684 ;  Hazard,  U .  S.  Commercial  and  Statistical 
Register,  I.,  251;  O'Reilly,  Sketches  of  Rochester,  362. 

'  Niles'  Register,  XXIX,  165. 


1830]      WESTERN  TRADE   AND   IDEALS         107 

are  explained  by  social  quite  as  much  as  by  econom- 
ic forces.  It  was  certain  that  this  society,  where 
equality  and  individualism  flourished,  where  asser- 
tive democracy  was  supreme,  where  impatience  with 
the  old  order  of  things  was  a  ruling  passion,  would 
demand  control  of  the  government,  would  resent 
the  rule  of  the  trained  statesmen  and  official  classes, 
and  would  fight  nominations  by  congressional  cau- 
cus and  the  continuance  of  presidential  dynasties. 
Besides  its  susceptibility  to  change,  the  west  had 
generated,  from  its  Indian  fighting,  forest-felling, 
and  expansion,  a  belligerency  and  a  largeness  of  out- 
look with  regard  to  the  nation's  territorial  destiny. 
As  the  pioneer,  widening  the  ring-wall  of  his  clearing 
in  the  midst  of  the  stumps  and  marshes  of  the  wil- 
derness, had  a  vision  of  the  lofty  buildings  and 
crowded  streets  of  a  future  city,  so  the  west  as  a 
whole  developed  ideals  of  the  future  of  the  common 
man,  and  of  the  grandeur  and  expansion  of  the 
nation. 

The  west  was  too  new  a  section  to  have  devel- 
oped educational  facilities  to  any  large  extent. 
The  pioneers'  poverty,  as  well  as  the  traditions  of 
the  southern  interior  from  which  they  so  largely 
came,  discouraged  extensive  expenditures  for  public 
schools.^  In  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  the  more 
prosperous  planters  had  private  tutors,  often  New 
England  collegians,  for  their  children.  For  example, 
^Amos  Kendall,  later  postmaster-general,  was  tutor 

*  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  370-372. 


io8  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

in  Henry  Clay's  family.  So-called  colleges  were 
numerous,  some  of  them  fairly  good.  In  1830  a 
writer  made  a  survey  of  higher  education  in  the 
whole  western  country  and  reported  twenty-eight 
institutions,  with  seven  hundred  and  sixty-six  grad- 
uates and  fourteen  hundred  and  thirty  undergrad- 
uates. Less  than  forty  thousand  volumes  were 
recorded  in  the  college  and  "social"  libraries  of  the 
entire  Mississippi  Valley.*  Very  few  students  went 
from  the  west  to  eastern  colleges;  but  the  founda- 
tions of  public  education  had  been  laid  in  the  land 
grants  for  common  schools  and  universities.  For 
the  present  this  fund  was  generally  misappropriated 
and  wasted,  or  worse.  Nevertheless,  the  ideal  of  a 
democratic  education  was  held  up  in  the  first  consti- 
tution of  Indiana,  making  it  the  duty  of  the  legis- 
lature to  provide  for  "  a  general  system  of  education, 
ascending  in  a  regular  graduation  from  township 
schools  to  a  State  university,  wherein  tuition  shall 
be  gratis,  and  equally  open  to  all."  ^ 

Literature  did  not  flourish  in  the  west,  although 
the  newspaper  press  ^  followed  closely  after  the  re- 
treating savage;  many  short-lived  periodicals  were 
founded,^  and  writers  like  Timothy  Flint  and  James 

» .4m.  Quarterly  Register  (November,  1830),  III.,  127-131. 

*  Poore,  Charters  and  Constitutions,  pt.  i.,  50S  (art.  ix.,  sec.  2 
of  Constitution  of  Ind.,  1816). 

'  W.  H.  Perrin,  Pioneer  Press  of  Ky.  (Filson  Club  Publications). 

*  Venable,  Beginnings  of  Literary  Culture  in  the  Ohio  Valley, 
chap,  iii.;  W.  B.  Cairns,  Development  of  American  Literature 
from  18 IS  to  1833,  in  University  of  Wis.,  Bulletin  (Phil,  and  Lit. 
Series),  I.,  60-63. 


1830]       WESTERN   TRADE   AND    IDEALS  109 

Hall  were  not  devoid  of  literary  ability.  Lexington, 
in  Kentucky,  and  Cincinnati  made  rival  claims  to  be 
the  "Athens  of  the  West."  In  religion,  the  west 
was  partial  to  those  denominations  which  prevailed 
in  the  democratic  portions  of  the  older  sections. 
Baptists,  Methodists,  and  Presbyterians  took  the 
lead.' 

The  religious  life  of  the  west  frequently  expressed 
itself  in  the  form  of  emotional  gatherings,  in  the 
camp-meetings  and  the  revivals,  where  the  rude,  un- 
lettered, but  deeply  religious  backwoods  preachers 
moved  their  large  audiences  with  warnings  of  the 
wrath  of  God.  Muscular  Christianity  was  personi- 
fied in  the  circuit-rider,  who,  with  his  saddle-bags 
and  Bible,  threaded  the  dreary  trails  through  the 
forest  from  settlement  to  settlement.  From  the 
responsiveness  of  the  west  to  religious  excitement, 
it  was  easy  to  perceive  that  here  was  a  region  capable 
of  being  swayed  in  large  masses  by  enthusiasm. 
These  traits  of  the  camp-meeting  were  manifested 
later  in  political  campaigns. 

Thus  this  society  beyond  the  mountains,  recruited 
from  all  the  older  states  and  bound  together  by  the 
Mississippi,  constituted  a  region  swayed  for  the  most 
part  by  common  impulses.  By  the  march  of  the 
westerners  away  from  their  native  states  to  the 


^  Am.  Quarterly  Register,  III.,  135  (November,  1830);  Scher- 
merhom  and  Mills,  View  of  U.  S.  West  of  tJte  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains (Hartford,  1814);  Home  Missionary,  1829,  pp.  78,  79;  1830, 
p.  172;  McMaster,  United  States,  IV.,  550-555. 


no  RISE   OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1820 

public  domain  of  the  nation,  and  by  their  organiza- 
tion as  territories  of  the  United  States,  they  lost  that 
state  particularism  which  distinguished  many  of  the 
old  commonwealths  of  the  coast.  The  section  was 
nationalistic  and  democratic  to  the  core.  The  west 
admired  the  self-made  man  and  was  ready  to  follow 
its  hero  with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  section  more  re- 
sponsive to  personality  than  to  the  programmes  of 
trained  statesmen.  It  was  a  self-confident  section, 
believing  in  its  right  to  share  in  government,  and 
troubled  by  no  doubts  of  its  capacity  to  rule. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE    FAR    WEST 
(1820-1830) 

IN  the  decade  of  which  we  write,  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  the  present  area  of  the  United  States 
was  Indian  country — a  vast  wilderness  stretching 
from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  East 
of  the  Mississippi,  the  pioneers  had  taken  possession 
of  the  hardwoods  of  the  Ohio,  but  over  the  prairies 
between  them  and  the  Great  Lakes  the  wild  flowers 
and  grasses  grew  rank  and  undisturbed.  To  the 
north,  across  Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  spread  the 
sombre,  white-pine  wilderness,  interlaced  with  hard- 
woods, which  swept  in  ample  zone  along  the  Great 
Lakes,  and,  in  turn,  faded  into  the  treeless  expanse 
of  the  prairies  beyond  the  Mississippi.  To  the 
south,  in  the  Gulf  plains,  Florida  was,  for  the  most 
part,  a  wilderness;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  great  areas 
of  Mississippi,  Alabama,  and  Georgia  were  still  un- 
occupied by  civilization. 

West  of  the  Mississippi  lay  a  huge  new  world — an 
ocean  of  grassy  prairie  that  rolled  far  to  the  west, 
till  it  reached  the  zone  where  insufficient  rainfall 
transformed  it  into  the  arid  plains,  which  stretched 


112  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

away  to  the  foot-hills  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
Over  this  vast  waste,  equal  in  area  to  France,  Ger- 
many, Spain,  Portugal,  Austria-Hungary,  Italy,  Den- 
mark, and  Belgium  combined,  a  land  where  now 
wheat  and  corn  fields  and  grazing  herds  produce 
much  of  the  food  supply  for  the  larger  part  of 
America  and  for  great  areas  of  Europe,  roamed  the 
bison  and  the  Indian  hunter.  Beyond  this,  the 
Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Sierra  Nevadas,  enclos- 
ing high  plateaus,  heaved  up  their  vast  bulk  through 
nearly  a  thousand  miles  from  east  to  west,  concealing 
untouched  treasures  of  silver  and  gold.  The  great 
valleys  of  the  Pacific  coast  in  Oregon  and  California 
held  but  a  sparse  population  of  Indian  traders,  a 
few  Spanish  missions,  and  scattered  herdsmen. 

At  the  beginning  of  Monroe's  presidency,  the 
Pacific  coast  was  still  in  dispute  between  England, 
Spain,  Russia,  and  the  United  States.  Holding  to 
all  of  Texas,  Spain  also  raised  her  flag  over  her 
colonists  who  spread  from  Mexico  along  the  valley 
of  the  Rio  Grande  to  Santa  F6,  and  she  claimed  the 
great  unoccupied  wilderness  of  mountain  and  desert 
comprising  the  larger  portion  of  Colorado,  Arizona, 
Utah,  and  Nevada,  as  well  as  California.  In  the 
decade  of  1 820-1 830,  fur-traders  threaded  the  dark 
and  forbidding  defiles  of  the  mountains,  unfolded 
the  secrets  of  the  Great  Basin,  and  found  their  way 
across  the  Rockies  to  California  and  Oregon;  the 
government  undertook  diplomatic  negotiations  to 
safeguard  American  rights  on  the  Pacific,  and  ex- 


1830]  THE   FAR   WEST  113 

tended  a  line  of  forts  well  into  the  Indian  coun- 
try ;  while  far-seeing  statesmen  on  the  floor  of  Con- 
gress challenged  the  nation  to  fulfil  its  destiny  by 
planting  its  settlements  boldly  beyond  the  Rocky 
Mountains  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  It  was  a 
call  to  the  lodgment  of  American  power  on  that 
ocean,  the  mastery  of  which  is  to  determine  the 
future  relations  of  Asiatic  and  European  civiliza- 
tions.' 

A  survey  of  the  characteristics  of  the  life  of  the 
far  west  shows  that,  over  Wisconsin  and  the  larger 
part  of  Michigan,  the  Indian  trade  was  still  carried 
on  by  methods  introduced  by  the  French.*  Astor's 
American  Fur  Company  practically  controlled  the 
trade  of  W^isconsin  and  Michigan.  It  shipped  its 
guns  and  ammunition,  blankets,  gewgaws,  and 
whiskey  from  Mackinac  to  some  one  of  the  principal 
posts,  where  they  were  placed  in  the  light  birch 
canoes,  manned  by  French  boatmen,  and  sent 
throughout  the  forests  to  the  minor  trading-posts. 
Practically  all  of  the  Indian  villages  of  the  tribu- 
taries of  the  Great  Lakes  and  of  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi were  regularly  visited  by  the  trader.  The 
trading-posts  became  the  nuclei  of  later  settlements ; 
the  traders'  trails  grew  into  the  early  roads,  and 
their  portages  marked  out  the  location  for  canals. 

'  Cf .   Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  (Ant.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap. 

XV. 

'  Masson,  Le  Bourgeois  de  Nordwest ;  Parkman,  Old  Re- 
gime. 


114  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

Little  by  little  the  fur-trade  was  undennining  the 
Indian  society  and  paving  the  way  for  the  entrance 
of  civilization.* 

In  the  War  of  181 2,  all  along  the  frontier  of 
Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Missouri,  as  well  as  in  the 
southwest,  the  settlers  had  drawn  back  into  forts, 
much  as  in  the  early  days  of  the  occupation  of  Ken- 
tucky and  Te'pnessee,  and  the  traders  and  the  Ind- 
ians had  been  entirely  under  the  influence  of  Great 
Britain.  In  the  negotiations  at  Ghent,  that  power, 
having  captured  the  American  forts  at  Mackinac, 
Prairie  du  Chien,  and  Chicago,  tried  to  incorporate 
in  the  treaty  a  provision  for  a  neutral  belt,  or  buffer 
state,  of  Indian  territory  in  the  northwest,  to 
separate  Canada  from  the  United  States.'  Taught 
by  this  experience,  the  United  States,  at  the  close  of 
the  war,  passed  laws  excluding  aliens  from  conduct- 
ing the  Indian  trade,  and  erected  forts  at  Green 
Bay,  Prairie  du  Chien,  Chicago,  and  Fort  Snelling. 
By  order  of  Secretary  of  War  Calhoun,  Governor 
Cass,  of  Michigan,  made  an  expedition  in  1820 
along  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Superior  into  Minne- 
sota, to  compel  the  removal  of  English  flags  and  to 
replace  British  by  American  influence.^  At  the 
same  time,  an  expedition  under  Major  Long  visited 

*  Turner,  Character  and  Influence  of  iltc  Fur  Trade  in  Wis.,  in 
Wis.  Hist.  Soc,  Transactions ,  1889. 

^  Cf.  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  {Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap.  x. 

'Schoolcraft,  Hist,  of  Indian  Tribes,  VI.,  422;  ibid.,  Narra- 
tive Journal;  "  Doty's  Journal,"  in  Wis.  Hist.  Soc,  Collections, 
XIII.,  163. 


WK^IKUX    IXDIANS' 
TKADIXG     I'OSTsi 

AND 

ROUTES  OF  TUAA'ET. 
lX*2«)-tH;tr> 

Biioi-tl  on  Clillti'ii<U'ii'«  Aiiu'riciiii  KiirTriul 

SCALE  O""  MILES 


1830]  THE   FAR   WEST  115 

the  upper  waters  of  the  Minnesota  River  on  a  similar 
errand.'  An  agent  who  was  sent  by  the  govern- 
ment to  investigate  the  Indian  conditions  of  this 
region  in  1820,  recommended  that  the  country  now 
included  in  Wisconsin,  northern  Michigan,  and  part 
of  Minnesota  should  be  an  Indian  reservation, 
from  which  white  settlements  should  be  excluded, 
with  the  idea  that  ultimately  the  Indian  pop- 
ulation should  be  organized  as  a  state  of  the 
Union.' 

The  Creeks  and  Cherokees,  Choctaws,  and  Chicka- 
saws  of  the  Gulf  region  were  more  advanced  tow- 
ards civilization  than  the  Indians  of  the  northwest. 
While  the  latter  lived  chiefly  by  hunting  and  trap- 
ping, the  southwestern  Indians  had  developed  a 
considerable  agriculture  and  a  sedentary  life.  For 
that  very  reason,  however,  they  were  the  more 
obnoxious  to  the  pioneers  who  pressed  upon  their 
territory  from  all  sides;  and,  as  we  shall  see,  strenu- 
ous efforts  were  made  to  remove  them  beyond  the 
Mississippi. 

Throughout  the  decade  the  problem  of  the  future 
of  the  Indians  east  of  this  river  was  a  pressing  one, 
and  the  secretaries  of  war,  to  whose  department  the 
management  of  the  tribes  belonged,  made  many 
plans  and  recommendations  for  their  civilization, 
improvement,  and  assimilation.  But  the  advance 
of  the  frontier  broke  down  the  efforts  to  preserve 

*  Keating,  Long's  Expedition. 

^  Morse,  Report  on  Indian  Affairs  in  1820. 


ii6  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

and  incorporate  these  primitive  people  in  the  dom- 
inant American  society.* 

Across  the  Mississippi,  settlement  of  the  whites 
had,  in  the  course  of  this  decade,  pushed  up  the 
Missouri  well  towards  the  western  boundary  of  the 
state,  and,  as  the  map  of  the  settlement  shows,  had 
made  advances  towards  the  interior  in  parts  of 
Arkansas  as  well.  But  these  were  only  narrow 
wedges  of  civilization  thrust  into  the  Indian  coun- 
try, the  field  of  operations  of  the  fur-traders.  Suc- 
cessors to  the  French  traders  who  had  followed  the 
rivers  and  lakes  of  Canada  far  towards  the  interior, 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  and  the  Northwest 
Company  under  British  charters  had  carried  their 
operations  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Pacific  long 
before  Americans  entered  the  west.  As  early  as  1 793, 
Alexander  Mackenzie  reached  the  Pacific  from  the 
Great  Lakes  by  way  of  Canada.^  The  year  before, 
an  English  ship  under  Vancouver  explored  the  north- 
western coast  in  the  hope  of  finding  a  passage  by 
sea  to  the  north  and  east.  He  missed  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia,  which  in  the  following  month  was 
entered  by  an  American,  Captain  Gray,  who  ascend- 
ed the  river  twenty  miles.  The  expedition  of  Lewis 
and  Clark,  1 804-1 806,  made  the  first  crossing  of 
the  continent  from  territory  of  the  United  States, 


'  Am.  State  Paps.,  Indian,  II.,  275,  542,  et  passim;  J.  Q.  Adams, 
Memoirs,  VII.,  89,  90,  92 ;  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers,  II., 
234,  et  seq. 

*  Mackenzie,  Travels. 


1830]  THE    FAR   WEST  117 

and  strengthened  the  claims  of  that  country  to  the 
region  of  the  Columbia.' 

John  Jacob  Astor's  attempt  to  plant  a  trading- 
post  at  Astoria '  had  been  defeated  by  the  treachery 
of  his  men,  who,  at  the  opening  of  the  War  of  181 2, 
turned  the  post  over  to  the  British  Northwest  fur- 
traders.  The  two  great  branches  of  the  Columbia, 
the  one  reaching  up  into  Canada,  and  the  other 
pushing  far  into  the  Rocky  Mountains,  on  the  Amer- 
ican side,  constituted  lines  of  advance  for  the  rival 
forces  of  England  and  the  United  States  in  the 
struggle  for  the  Oregon  country.  The  British 
traders  rapidly  made  themselves  masters  of  the 
region.'  By  1825  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
monopolized  the  English  fur-trade  and  was  estab- 
lished at  Fort  George  (as  Astoria  was  rechristened), 
Fort  Walla-Walla,  and  Fort  Vancouver,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Willamette.  Here,  for  twenty-two 
years,  its  agent.  Dr.  John  McLoughlin,  one  of  the 
many  Scotchmen  who  have  built  up  England's 
dominion  in  the  new  countries  of  the  globe,  ruled 
like  a  benevolent  monarch  over  the  realms  of  the 
British  traders.'*  From  these  Oregon  posts  as  cen- 
tres they  passed  as  far  south  as  the  region  of  Great 
Salt  Lake,  in  what  was  then  Mexican  territory. 

While  the  British  traders  occupied  the  northwest 
coast  the  Spaniards  held  California.     Although  they 

'  Cf.  Channing,  Jeffcrsonian  System  {Am.  Nation,  XII.),  chap, 
vii.  ^  Irving,  Astoria.         '  Coues  (editor) ,  Greater  Northwest. 

*  Schafer,  Pacific  Northwest,  chap.  viii. 


ii8  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1812 

established  the  settlement  of  San  Francisco  in  the 
year  of  the  declaration  of  American  independence, 
settlement  grew  but  slowly.  The  presidios,  the  mis- 
sions, with  their  Indian  neophytes,  and  the  cattle 
ranches  feebly  occupied  this  imperial  domain.  Yan- 
kee trading-ships  gathered  hides  and  tallow  at  San 
Diego,  Monterey,  and  San  Francisco ;  Yankee  whalers, 
seal-hunters,  and  fur-traders  sought  the  northwest 
coast  and  passed  on  to  China  to  bring  back  to  Boston 
and  Salem  the  products  of  the  far  east.*  But  Spain's 
possession  was  not  secure.  The  genius  for  expan- 
sion which  had  already  brought  the  Russians  to 
Alaska  drew  them  down  the  coast  even  to  California, 
and  in  181 2  they  established  Fort  Ross  at  Bodega 
Bay,  a  few  miles  above  the  mouth  of  Russian  River, 
north  of  San  Francisco.  This  settlement,  as  well  as 
the  lesser  one  in  the  Farallone  Islands,  endured  for 
nearly  a  generation,  a  menace  to  Spain's  ascendency 
in  California  in  the  chaotic  period  when  her  colonies 
were  in  revolt.^ 

In  the  mean  time,  from  St.  Louis  as  a  centre, 
American  fur-traders,  the  advance-guard  of  settle- 
ment, were  penetrating  into  the  heart  of  the  vast 
wilderness  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific 
coast.'  This  was  a  more  absolute  Indian  domain 
than  was  the  region  between  the  AUeghanies  and 
the  Mississippi  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 

>  R.  H.  Dana,  Two  Years  before  iJie  Mast. 
*  H.  H.  Bancroft,  Hist,  of  California,  II.,  628;  Hittel,  Hist,  of 
California.  '  Chittenden,  Am.  Fur  Trade  of  the  Far  West. 


1823]  THE    FAR    WEST  119 

tury — an  empire  of  mountains  and  prairies,  where 
the  men  of  the  Stone  Age  watched  with  alarm  the 
first  crawHng  waves  of  that  tide  of  civihzation  that 
was  to  sweep  them  away.  The  savage  population 
of  the  far  west  has  already  been  described  in  an 
earlier  volume  of  this  series/ 

With  the  development  of  the  Rocky  Mountain 
Fur  Company,  the  most  flourishing  period  of  the  St. 
Louis  trade  in  the  far  west  began.  The  founder  of 
this  company  was  William  H.  Ashley,  a  Virginian. 
Between  the  autumn  of  1823  and  the  spring  of  the 
next  year,  one  of  his  agents  erected  a  post  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Bighorn,  and  sent  out  his  trappers 
through  the  Green  River  valley,  possibly  even  to 
Great  Salt  Lake.  A  detachment  of  this  party  found 
the  gateway  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  through  the 
famous  South  Pass  by  way  of  the  Sweetwater  branch 
of  the  north  fork  of  the  Platte.  This  pass  com- 
manded the  routes  to  the  great  interior  basin  and 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  What  Cumberland  Gap  was 
in  the  advance  of  settlement  across  the  AUegha- 
nies.  South  Pass  was  in  the  movement  across 
the  Rocky  Moimtains ;  through  it  passed  the 
later  Oregon  and  California  trails  to  the  Pacific 
coast. 

On  the  lower  Missouri  and  at  various  places  in  the 


>  Farrand,  Basis  of  Am.  Hist.  {Am.  Nation,  II.),  chaps,  viii., 
ix.,xii.;  see  also  chap.  iv.  On  the  location  of  the  Indians,  see 
map,  p.  309;  Chittenden,  Am.  Fur  Trade,  II.,  pt.  v.,  chaps,  viii., 
ix.,  X.;  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Seventh  Annual  Report. 


120  RISE   OF   THE   NEW  WEST  [1823 

interior/  stockaded  trading-posts  were  erected  by 
the  Rocky  Mountain  Fur  Company  and  its  rival,  the 
American  Fur  Company.  In  these  posts  the  old 
fur-trade  life  of  the  past  went  on,  with  French  half- 
breed  packmen  and  boatmen,  commanded  by  the 
bourgeois.  But  in  some  of  the  best  trading-grounds 
the  savages  declined  to  permit  the  erection  of  posts, 
and  so,,  under  Ashley's  leadership,  bands  of  mounted 
American  trappers,  chiefly  Kentuckians,  Tennessee- 
ans,  and  Missourians,  were  sent  out  to  hunt  and 
trade  in  the  rich  beaver  valleys  of  the  mountains. 
The  Rocky  Mountain  trappers  were  the  successors 
to  the  Alleghany  frontiersmen,  carrying  on  in  this 
new  region,  where  nature  wrought  on  a  vaster  plan, 
the  old  trapping  life  which  their  ancestors  had  car- 
ried on  through  Cumberland  Gap  in  the  "  dark  and 
bloody  ground"  of  Kentucky. 

Yearly,  in  June  and  July,  a  rendezvous  was  held 
in  the  mountains,  to  which  the  brigades  of  trappers 
returned  with  the  products  of  their  hunt,  to  receive 
the  supplies  for  the  coming  year.  Here,  also,  came 
Indian  tribes  to  trade,  and  bands  of  free  trappers, 
lone  wanderers  in  the  mountains,  to  sell  their  furs 
and  secure  supplies.^  The  rendezvous  was  usually 
some  verdure-clad  valley  or  park  set  in  the  midst 
of  snow-capped  mountains,  a  paradise  of  game. 
Such  places  were  Jackson's  Hole,  at  the  foot  of  the 
lofty   Tetons,    Pierre's    Hole,    not    far   away,    and 

'  See  map,  p.  113;  Chittenden,  Am.  Fur  Trade,  I.,  44-51  (de- 
scribes posts,  etc.).  '  Irving,  Bonneville,  chap.  i. 


1827J  THE    FAR    WEST  121 

Ogdcn's  Hole,  near  the  present  site  of  Ogden,  in 
Utah.  Great  Salt  Lake  was  probably  first  visited 
by  Bridger  in  1824,  and  the  next  year  a  party  of 
Hudson  Bay  trappers  were  expelled  by  Americans 
who  took  possession  of  their  furs.  In  1826,  Ashley 
carried  a  six-pounder  cannon  on  wheels  to  Utah 
Lake  for  the  defence  of  his  post. 

A  new  advance  of  the  American  fur-trader  was 
made  when  Jedediah  Smith  succeeded  Ashley  as  the 
leader  in  Rocky  Mountain  trade  and  exploration. 
In  1826  he  left  the  Salt  Lake  rendezvous  with  a 
party  of  trappers  to  learn  the  secrets  of  the  lands 
between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  Proceeding  to  the  southwest  along  the 
Virgin  River,  Smith  descended  it  to  the  Colorado, 
and  crossed  the  desert  to  San  Diego,  California. 
Here,  by  the  intercession  of  a  Yankee  captain  then 
in  that  port,  he  obtained  supplies  from  the  Span- 
iards, and  turned  to  the  northwest,  travelling  parallel 
to  the  coast  for  some  three  hundred  miles  to  winter- 
ing grounds  on  the  headwaters  of  the  San  Joaquin 
and  the  Merced.  Leaving  most  of  his  party  behind, 
he  crossed  the  mountains,  by  a  route  south  of  the 
Humboldt,  and  returned  to  Great  Salt  Lake. 

Almost  immediately  he  set  out  again  for  Cali- 
fornia by  the  previous  route,  and  in  1827  reached 
the  San  Jose  mission.  Here  he  was  arrested  by  the 
Spanish  authorities  and  sent  under  guard  to  Monte- 
rey, where  another  Yankee  skipper  secured  his  re- 
lease.    Wintering  once  more  in  California,  this  time 


122  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

on  the  American  Fork,  he  reached  the  coast  in  the 
spring  of  1828,  and  followed  the  Umpquah  River 
towards  the  Oregon  country.  While  he  was  absent, 
his  camp  was  attacked  by  the  Indians  and  fifteen 
of  his  men  killed.  Absolutely  alone,  Smith  w^orked 
his  way  through  the  forest  to  Fort  Vancouver, 
where  he  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  Dr.  McLoughlin 
through  the  winter.  In  the  following  spring  he 
ascended  the  Columbia  to  the  Hudson  Bay  posts 
among  the  Flat  heads,  and  made  his  way  in  the 
summer  of  1829  to  the  rendezvous  of  his  company 
at  the  Tetons.  In  three  years  this  daring  trader, 
braving  the  horrors  of  the  desert  and  passing  un- 
scathed from  Indian  attacks  which  carried  off  most 
of  his  companions,  opened  to  knowledge  much  of 
the  vast  country  between  Great  Salt  Lake  and 
the  Pacific.^  In  1831,  while  on  the  Santa  Fe  trail. 
Smith  and  his  companions  lost  their  way.  Perish- 
ing with  thirst,  he  finally  reached  the  Cimaron, 
where,  as  he  was  digging  for  water  in  its  sandy  bed, 
he  was  shot  by  an  Indian. 

Thus  the  active  men  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Fur 
Company,  in  the  decade  between  1820  and  1830, 
revealed  the  sources  of  the  Platte,  the  Green,  the 
Yellowstone,  and  the  Snake  rivers,  and  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  region;  they 
pioneered  the  way  to  South  Pass,  descended  Green 
River  by  boat,  carried  cannon  into  the  interior 
basin;  showed  the  practicability  of  a  wagon  route 

'Chittenden,  Am.  Fur  Trade,  I.,  252,  271,  282. 


1832]  THE   FAR   WEST  123 

through  the  Rockies,  reached  CaHfomia  from  Salt 
Lake,  crossed  the  Sierras  and  the  deserts  of  Utah  and 
Nevada,  and  became  intimately  acquainted  with  the 
activity  of  the  British  traders  of  the  northwest  coast.* 
Already  an  interest  in  Oregon  and  the  Rocky 
Mountain  region  was  arising  on  the  eastern  sea- 
board. In  1832,  Captain  Bonneville,  an  officer  in 
the  United  States  army,  on  leave  of  absence, 
passed  with  a  wagon-train  into  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, where  for  nearly  three  years  he  trapped  and 
traded  and  explored.^  Walker,  one  of  his  men,  in 
1833,  reached  California  by  the  Humboldt  River  (a 
route  afterwards  followed  by  the  emigrants  to  Cali- 
fornia), and  made  known  the  Yoscmite  Valley.  A 
New  England  enthusiast.  Hall  Kelley,  had  for  some 
years  been  lecturing  on  the  riches  of  the  Oregon 
country  and  the  need  of  planting  an  agricultural 
colony  there.  It  was  natural  that  Boston  should 
be  interested  in  the  Oregon  country,  which  was 
visited  by  so  many  vessels  from  that  port.  In 
1820,  New  England  missionaries  settled  in  the 
Hawaiian  Islands,  closely  connected  by  trade  with 
the  coast.  In  1832,  Nathaniel  Wyeth,  of  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts,  led  a  party  of  New-Eng- 
landers  west,  with  the  plan  of  establishing  a  trading 
and  fishing  post  on  the  waters  of  the  Columbia.' 

*  Chittenden,  Am.  Fur  Trade,  I.,  306. 
'  Irving,  Bonneville. 

*  Chittenden,  Am.  Fur  Trade,  I.,  435;  Wyeth's  "Journals" 
are  pubUshed  by  the  Oregon  Hist.  Soc. ;  of.  Irving,  Bonneville, 
chap.  \'i. 


124  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1820 

With  Wyeth,  on  a  second  expedition  in  1834,  went 
the  Reverend  Jason  Lee  and  four  Methodist  mission- 
aries. Two  years  later  came  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman 
and  another  company  of  missionaries  with  their 
wives;  they  brought  a  wagon  through  South  Pass 
and  over  the  mountains  to  the  Snake  River,  and 
began  an  agricultural  colony.  Thus  the  old  story 
of  the  sequence  of  fur-trader,  missionary,  and  set- 
tler was  repeated.  The  possession  of  Oregon  by 
the  British  fur-trader  was  challenged  by  the  Ameri- 
can farmer. 

Contemporaneously  with  the  development  of  the 
fur-trade  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  a  trade  was 
opened  between  St.  Louis  and  the  old  Spanish  set- 
tlements at  Santa  Fe.  Although  even  in  the  days 
of  Washington  adventurous  frontiersmen  like  George 
Rogers  Clark  had  set  their  eyes  on  Santa  Fe  and 
the  silver-mines  of  the  southwest,  it  was  not  until 
the  Mexican  revolution  (182 1),  when  Spain's  con- 
trol was  weakened  throughout  her  whole  domain, 
that  systematic  trade  was  possible.  In  1822,  Beck- 
nell,  of  Missouri,  took  a  wagon-train  to  Santa  ¥6, 
to  trade  for  horses  and  mules  and  to  trap  en  route. 
Year  after  year  thereafter,  caravans  of  Missouri 
traders  found  their  way  across  the  desert,  by  the 
Santa  F6  trail,  with  cottons  and  other  dry-goods 
furnished  from  St.  Louis,  and  brought  back  horses, 
mules,  furs,  and  silver.  The  trade  averaged  about 
one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and 
was  an  important  source  of  supply  of  specie  for  the 


1833]  THE    FAR    WEST  125 

west ;  and  it  stimulated  the  interest  of  St.  Louis  in 
the  Mexican  provinces.  The  mode  of  handling  the 
wagon  -  trains  that  passed  between  Missouri  and 
Santa  F€  furnished  the  model  for  the  caravans  that 
later  were  to  cross  the  plains  in  the  rush  to  the  gold- 
fields  of  California.* 

By  1833  the  important  western  routes  were 
clearly  made  known. ^  The  Oregon  trail,  the  Santa 
F6  trail,  the  Spanish  trail,  and  the  Gila  route'  had 
been  followed  by  frontiersmen  into  the  promised 
land  of  the  Pacific  coast  and  the  southwest.  In 
the  course  of  ten  years,  not  only  had  the  principal 
secrets  of  the  topography  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
the  Great  Basin,  the  passes  across  the  Sierra  Neva- 
das  been  revealed,  but  also  the  characteristics  of 
the  Spanish-American  settlements  of  California  and 
the  Rio  Grande  region.  Already  pioneers  sought 
Texas,  and  American  colonization  was  prepar- 
ing for  another  and  greater  conquest  of  the  wilder- 
ness. 

The  interest  of  the  United  States  government  in 
the  far  west  in  this  period  was  shown  in  explora- 
tion and  diplomacy.  Calhoun  projected  an  exten- 
sion of  the  forts  of  the  United  States  well  up  the 
Missouri  into  the  Indian  country,  partly  as  protec- 
tion to  the  traders  and  partly  as  a  defence  against 

'  Gregg,  Commerce  of  the  Prairies;  Chittenden,  Am.  F«r  Trade, 
II.,  chap.  xxix. 

*  Sample,  Am.  Hist,  and  its  Geographic  Conditions ,  chap.  x. 

'  Personal  Narrative  of  James  O.  Pattie;  H.  H.  Bancroft,  Hist, 
of  California,  III.,  162. 


126  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1818 

English  aggressions.  Two  Yellowstone  expeditions  * 
were  designed  to  promote  these  ends.  The  first  of 
these,  1819-1820,  was  a  joint  military  and  scientific 
undertaking ;  but  the  military  expedition,  attempt- 
ing to  ascend  the  Missouri  in  steamboats,  got  no 
farther  than  Council  Bluffs.  IVIismanagement,  ex- 
travagance, and  scandal  attended  the  undertaking, 
and  the  enterprise  was  made  an  occasion  for  a 
political  onslaught  on  Calhoun's  management  of  the 
war  department. 

The  scientific  expedition,  under  Major  Long,  of 
the  United  States  Engineering  Corps,  ascended  the 
Missouri  in  the  Western  Engineer,  the  first  steam- 
boat which  navigated  those  waters  above  St.  Louis 
— a  stern-wheeler,  with  serpent-mouthed  figure-head, 
through  which  the  steam  escaped,  bringing  terror 
to  the  savages  along  the  banks.  The  expedition 
reached  the  source  of  the  Platte,  discovered  Long's 
Peak,  and  camped  near  the  site  of  Denver.  Thence 
the  party  passed  to  La  Junta,  Colorado,  whence  it 
broke  into  two  divisions,  one  of  which  descended 
the  Arkansas;  the  other  reached  the  Canadian 
River  (which  it  mistook  for  the  Red)  and  descended 
to  its  junction  with  the  Arkansas.  The  effort  to 
push  the  military  power  of  the  government  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Yellowstone  failed,  and  the  net  result, 
on  the  military  side,  was  a  temporary  post  near  the 
present  site  of  Omaha. 

'Chittenden,   Am.   Fur  Trade,  II.,   562;  Long's    Expedition 
(Early  Western  Travels,  XIV.-XVII.). 


1825]  THE   FAR   WEST  127 

The  most  important  effect  of  the  expedition  was 
to  give  currency  to  Long's  description  of  the  coun- 
try through  which  he  passed  as  the  "Great  Ameri- 
can Desert,"  unfit  for  cultivation  and  uninhabi- 
table by  agricultural  settlers.  The  whole  of  the 
region  between  the  Missouri  River  and  the  Rocky 
]\Iountains  seemed  to  him  adapted  as  a  range  for 
buffalo,  "calculated  to  serve  as  a  barrier  to  pre- 
vent too  great  an  extension  of  our  population  west- 
ward," and  to  secure  us  against  the  incursions  of 
enemies  in  that  quarter.*  A  second  expedition,  in 
1825,  under  General  Atkinson  and  Major  O'Fal- 
lon,  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone,  hav- 
ing made  treaties  with  various  Indian  tribes  on  the 
way. 

In  the  mean  time,  Congress  and  the  president  were 
busy  with  the  question  of  Oregon.  By  the  con- 
vention of  1 81 8,  with  Great  Britain,  the  northern 
boundary  of  the  United  States  was  carried  from  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  along 
the  forty-ninth  parallel.  Beyond  the  mountains, 
the  Oregon  country  was  left  open,  for  a  period  of 
ten  years,  to  joint  occupation  of  both  powers,  with- 
out prejudice  to  the  claims  of  either.  Having  thus 
postponed  the  Oregon  question,  the  secretary  of 
state,  John  Quincy  Adams,  turned  to  his  Spanish  re- 
lations. Obliged  by  Monroe  to  relinquish  our  claim 
to  Texas  in  the  treaty  of  1 819,  by  which  we  obtained 
Florida,  he  insisted  on  so  drawing  our  boundary-line 

'  Long's  Expedition  {Early  Western  Travels,  XVII.),  147,  148. 


128  RISE    OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1819 

in  the  southwest  as  to  acquire  Spain's  title  to  the 
Pacific  north  of  the  forty-second  parallel,  and  to  the 
lands  that  lay  north  and  east  of  the  irregular  line 
from  the  intersection  of  this  parallel  with  the  Rocky 
Mountains  to  the  Sabine.  Adams  was  proud  of  se- 
curing this  line  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  for  it  was  the 
first  recognition  by  an  outside  power  of  our  rights 
in  the  Oregon  country.* 

Although  Russia  put  forward  large  and  exclusive 
claims  north  of  the  fifty-first  parallel,  which  we  chal- 
lenged, the  contest  for  Oregon  lay  between  England 
and  the  United  States.  At  the  close  of  1820,  Floyd, 
of  Virginia,  moved  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
to  inquire  into  the  feasibility  of  the  occupation  of 
the  Columbia  River ;  and  early  the  next  year  ^  a 
committee  report  was  brought  in,  discussing  the 
American  rights.  Floyd's  bill  provided  for  the  mili- 
tary occupation  of  the  Columbia  River,  donation  of 
lands  to  actual  settlers,  and  control  of  the  Indians. 
No  vote  was  reached,  however,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  close  of  1822  that  the  matter  secured  the  atten- 
tion of  Congress. 

Whatever  may  have  been  his  motives,  Floyd 
stated  with  vividness  the  significance  of  western 
advance  in  relation  to  the  Pacific  coast.  He  showed 
that,  while  in  1755,  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 

'  Treaties  and  Conventions  (ed.  of  1889),  416,  1017;  Babcock, 
Am.  Nationality  (Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap,  xvi.;  J.  Q.  Adams, 
Memoirs,  IV.,  275. 

^Annals  of  Cong.,  16  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  945;  J.  Q.  Adams,  Me- 
moirs, v.,  238,  243-260. 


1822]  THE   FAR   WEST  129 

aftt'i"  the  foundation  of  Jamestown,  the  population 
of  Virginia  had  si)rcad  but  three  hundred  miles  into 
the  interior  of  the  country,  during  the  last  forty- 
three  years  population  had  spread  westward  more 
than  a  thousand  miles.  He  recalled  the  days  when 
more  than  a  month  was  required  to  furnish  Kentucky 
with  eastern  goods,  by  way  of  Pittsburg,  and  when 
it  required  a  voyage  of  over  a  month  to  pass  from 
Louisville  to  New  Orleans  and  nearly  three  months 
for  the  upward  voyage.  This  had  now  been  short- 
ened by  steamboat  to  seven  days  down  and  sixteen 
days  up.  From  these  considerations  and  the  time 
from  St.  Louis  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  by 
steamboat  and  wagon,  he  argued  that  Oregon  was 
no  more  distant  from  St.  Louis  in  1822  than  St. 
Louis  was  twenty  years  before  from  Philadelphia. 
The  fur-trade,  the  whale  and  seal  fisheries,  the 
trade  with  China,  and  the  opportunity  for  agri- 
cultural occupation  afforded  by  Oregon  were  all  set 
forth.' 

Against  the  proposal,  his  opponents  argued  in- 
expediency rather  than  our  treaties  with  Great 
Britain.  Tracy,  of  New  York,  doubted  the  value 
of  the  Oregon  country,  and,  influenced  perhaps 
by  Long's  report,  declared  that  "nature  has  fixed 
limits  for  our  nation;  she  has  kindly  introduced 
as  our  Western  barrier,  mountains  almost  inacces- 
sible, whose  base  she  has  skirted  with  irreclaimable 
deserts  of  sand."^     In   a   later  debate,   Smyth,  of 

*  Annals  of  Cong.,  17  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  397.  ^  Ibid.,  590. 


I30  RISE    OF  THE   NEW   WEST  [1822 

Virginia,  amplified  this  idea  by  a  proposal  to  limit 
the  boundaries  of  the  United  States,  so  that  it 
should  include  but  one  or  two  tiers  of  states  be- 
yond the  Mississippi.  He  would  remove  the  Ind- 
ians beyond  this  limit,  and,  if  American  settlements 
should  cross  it,  they  might  be  in  alliance  with,  or 
under  the  protection  of,  the  United  States,  but  out- 
side of  its  bounds.* 

Baylies,  of  Massachusetts,  declared  that  there  were 
living  witnesses  "who  have  seen  a  population  of 
scarcely  six  hundred  thousand  swelled  into  ten  mill- 
ions; a  population  which,  in  their  youth,  extended 
scarcely  an  hundred  miles  from  the  ocean,  spreading 
beyond  the  mountains  of  the  West,  and  sweeping 
down  those  mighty  waters  which  open  into  regions 
of  such  matchless  fertility  and  beauty."  "Some 
now  within  these  walls  may,  before  they  die,  witness 
scenes  more  wonderful  than  these ;  and  in  aftertimes 
may  cherish  delightful  recollections  of  this  day, 
when  America,  almost  shrinking  from  the  '  shadows 
of  coming  events,*  first  placed  her  feet  upon  un- 
trodden ground,  scarcely  daring  to  anticipate  the 
grandeur  which  awaited  her."  Tucker,  of  Virginia, 
agreed  that  settlement  "marches  on,  with  the  in- 
creasing rapidity  of  a  fire,  and  nothing  will  stop  it 
until  it  reaches  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,"  which  he 
estimated  would  be  by  1872.  But  he  was  loath 
to  see  it  accelerated,  believing  that  the  people 
on  the  east  and  the  west  side  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 

*  Register  of  Debates,  18  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  I.,  37. 


i822]  THE   FAR   WEST  131 

tains  would  have   a  permanent  separation   of  in- 
terests.' 

Nor  were  even  western  men  sanguine  that  the 
nation  could  retain  the  Pacific  coast  as  an  integral 
part  of  its  vast  empire.  Senator  Benton,  of  Missouri, 
was  the  congressional  champion  of  the  far  west. 
Bom  in  interior  North  Carolina,  he  had  followed 
the  frontier  to  Tennessee,  and  then,  after  killing  his 
man  in  a  duel  and  exchanging  pistol-shots  in  a  free 
fight  with  Jackson,  he  removed  to  the  new  frontier 
at  St.  Louis.  Pedantic  and  ponderous,  deeply  read 
in  curious  historical  lore,  in  many  ways  he  was  not 
characteristic  of  the  far  west,  but  in  the  coarse 
vigor  with  which  he  bore  down  opposition  by  abuse, 
and  in  the  far  horizon  line  of  the  policies  he  ad- 
vocated, he  thoroughly  represented  its  traits. 

Familiar  as  he  was  with  frontier  needs  and  aspira- 
tions, he  urged  the  United  States  to  block  England's 
control  of  the  northwest,  and  to  assert  title  to  the 
Oregon  territory,  with  the  idea  of  ultimately  found- 
ing a  new  and  independent  American  nation  there. 
It  is  true  that  he  admitted  that  along  the  ridge  of 
the  Rocky  I\Iountains  "the  western  hmit  of  this 
republic  should  be  drawn,  and  the  statue  of  the 
fabled  god  Terminus  should  be  raised  upon  its  high- 
est peak,  never  to  be  thrown  down."  ^ 

Nevertheless,  in  his  utterances  the  ideal  of  expan- 
sion was  not  to  be  mistaken.     He  spoke  bravely  in 

^Annals  of  Cong.,  17  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  422. 
*  Register  of  Debates,  I.,  712. 


132  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1823 

favor  of  the  protection  and  extension  of  the  fur- 
trade,*  pointing  out  that  inasmuch  as  England  occu- 
pied Oregon,  she  would,  under  the  law  of  nations, 
have  the  right  of  possession  until  the  question  of 
sovereignty  were  decided.  He  warned  his  country- 
men, in  1823,  that  Great  Britain  would  monopolize 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  by  obtaining  control  of  the 
Rocky  Mountain  fur-trade  would  be  able  to  launch 
the  Indians  of  the  north  and  west  against  the  fron- 
tiers of  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  Illinois  and  Michi- 
gan, upon  the  first  renewal  of  hostilities  between  the 
United  States  of  America  and  the  king  of  Great 
Britain.^ 

Benton  believed  that,  within  a  century,  a  popula- 
tion greater  than  that  of  the  United  States  of  1820 
would  exist  on  the  west  side  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains; and  he  saw  in  the  occupation  of  the  north- 
west coast  the  means  of  promoting  a  trade  between 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and 
Asia.  Upon  the  people  of  eastern  Asia,  he  thought, 
the  establishment  of  a  civilized  power  on  the  oppo- 
site coast  of  America  would  produce  great  benefits. 
"Science,  liberal  principles  in  government,  and  the 
true  religion,  might  cast  their  lights  across  the  inter- 
vening sea.  The  valley  of  the  Columbia  might  be- 
come the  granary  of  China  and  Japan,  and  an  outlet 
to  their  imprisoned  and  exuberant  population.  .  .  . 
Russia  and  the  legitimates  menace  Turkey,  Persia, 

'  Annals  of  Cong.,  17  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  416;  cf.  ibid.,  18  Cong., 
I  Sess.,  I.,  456.  ^  Ibid.,  17  Cong..  2  Sess..  246-251. 


1823I  THE   FAR   WEST  133 

China,  and  Japan ;  they  menace  them  for  their  riches 
and  dominions;  the  same  Powers  menace  the  two 
Americas  for  the  popular  forms  of  their  Govern- 
ments. To  my  mind  the  proposition  is  clear,  that 
Eastern  Asia  and  the  two  Americas,  as  they  have 
become  neighbors,  should  become  friends."  * 

With  true  western  passion  he  denounced  the 
relinquishment  of  Texas  by  the  treaty  of  18 19. 
"The  magnificent  valley  of  the  Mississippi  is  ours," 
he  proclaimed,  "with  all  its  fountains,  springs,  and 
floods  and  woe  to  the  statesman  who  shall  under- 
take to  surrender  one  drop  of  its  water,  one  inch  of 
its  soil,  to  any  foreign  power."  He  was  ready  for 
a  war  with  Spain,  believing  that  it  would  give  the 
United  States  the  Floridas  and  Cuba,  "  the  geo- 
graphical appurtenance  of  the  valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi," that  it  would  free  the  New  from  the  Old 
World,  and  that  it  would  create  a  cordon  of  repub- 
lics across  the  two  continents  of  North  and  vSouth 
America.  He  pointed  to  the  west  as  the  route  to 
the  east — the  long-sought  way  to  India;  and,  in 
imagination,  he  outlined  the  states  to  be  laid  off 
"  from  the  center  of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  to 
the  foot  of  the  shining  mountains."  "It  is  time," 
he  wrote,  "  that  Western  men  had  some  share  in  the 
destinies  of  this  republic."  ^ 

*  Register  of  Debates ,  I.,  712.  ^  Meigs,  Benton,  98,  99,  cf.  91. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE  CRISIS  OF   1819  AND   ITS  RESULTS 
(1819-1820) 

IN  1820  the  United  States  had  a  population  of 
about  nine  and  one-half  milhons ;  in  1830,  nearly 
thirteen  millions.  It  was  spread  out  from  east  to 
west  like  a  page  in  the  history  of  society.  On  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  were  the  centres  of  American 
civilization  that  had  grown  up  in  colonial  days  in 
close  touch  with  Europe.  From  this  region  of  com- 
merce and  manufacture,  the  nation,  on  its  march 
towards  the  west,  changed  through  successive  types 
of  industrial  life  until  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  the 
frontier  fur-trader  mingled  with  the  Indians.  The 
successive  stages  of  social  evolution  which  at  first 
were  exhibited  in  narrow  belts  on  the  Atlantic  coast 
had  now  spread  nearly  across  the  continent.' 

Not  only  was  the  country  vast  in  extent,  it  was 
rapidly  growing.  In  the  decade  the  nation  increased 
its  population  by  over  three  million  and  a  quarter 
inhabitants,  an  addition  which  nearly  equalled  the 
whole  population  of  any  one  of  the  three  great  sec- 

*  Turner,  "Significance  of  the  Frontier,"  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc, 
Report  1893,  pp.  200,  206,  208. 


i8i9l  CRISIS   OF    1819  135 

tions,  the  middle  states,  the  south,  and  the  west. 
As  traveller  after  traveller  passed  over  the  routes  of 
his  predecessor  in  this  period,  reporting  the  life  by 
the  wayside  and  in  the  towns,  we  can  almost  see 
American  society  unfolding  with  startling  rapidity 
under  our  gaze;  farms  become  hamlets,  hamlets 
grow  into  prosperous  cities ;  the  Indian  and  the  for- 
ests recede;  new  stretches  of  wilderness  come  into 
view  in  the  farther  west,  and  we  see  the  irresistible 
tide  of  settlement  flowing  towards  the  solitudes. 

Nevertheless,  at  the  opening  of  our  survey  the 
nation  was  in  the  gloom  of  the  panic  of  1819.  This 
was  brought  on  by  the  speculative  reaction  that 
immediately  followed  the  war,  when  the  long-pent- 
up  crops  of  cotton  found  a  market  at  the  extraordi- 
nary price  of  nearly  thirty  cents  a  pound,  and  as  high 
as  seventy-eight  dollars  per  acre  was  bid  for  gov- 
ernment land  in  the  offices  of  the  southwest.*  The 
policy  of  the  government  fostered  reckless  purchases 
of  public  land.  In  the  critical  times  of  the  closing 
years  of  the  war,  the  treasury  agreed  to  accept  the 
notes  of  state  banks  in  payment  for  lands,  on  condi- 
tion that  these  banks  should  resume  specie  payment ; 
and  then  the  banks,  while  taking  only  nominal  steps 
towards  resumption,  loaned  their  paper  freely  to  the 
settlers  and  speculators  who  wished  to  invest  in  the 
public  domain. 

Under  the  credit  system  already  mentioned,  the 
pioneer  was  tempted  to  exhaust  his  funds  in  making 
'  Annals  of  Cong.,  16  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  446. 


T36  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1816 

his  first  partial  payment,  and  to  rely  upon  loans 
from  some  "wild  cat"  bank  wherewith  to  complete 
the  purchase  of  the  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  the 
smallest  tract  offered  under  the  terms  of  the  law; 
planters,  relying  equally  on  the  state  banks,  bought 
great  tracts  of  land  at  absurd  prices;  speculators, 
tempted  by  the  rapid  rise  in  land  values  and  by  the 
ease  of  securing  loans,  purchased  large  quantities 
in  the  hope  of  selling  before  it  became  necessary  to 
complete  their  payment.  On  the  seaboard,  extrav- 
agance abounded  as  a  reaction  from  the  economies 
of  war  times,  imported  manufactures  found  a  ready 
market,  and  the  domestic  factories  were  in  distress. 

While  state  banks  greatly  multiplied  and  expanded 
their  circulation  freely  to  meet  the  demands  of  bor- 
rowers,' the  United  States  Bank  not  only  failed  to 
check  the  movement,  but  even  contributed  to  it. 
After  a  dance  of  speculation,  the  bank,  in  the  sum-^ 
mer  of  181 8,  was  facing  ruin,  and  it  took  drastic 
means  to  save  itself.  Its  measures  compelled  the 
state  banks  to  redeem  their  notes  in  specie  or  close 
their  doors. ^ 

By  the  spring  of  18 19  the  country  was  in  the 
throes  of  a  panic.  State-bank  issues  were  reduced 
from  one  hundred  million  dollars  in  181 7  to  forty- 
five  millions  in  1819.     Few  banks  in  the  south  and 


*  Sumner,  Hist,  of  Banking,  I.,  chaps,  iv.-vi. 

*  Catterall,  Second  Bank,  chap,  iii.;  Dewey,  Financial  Hist, 
of  the  U.  S.,  chap,  vii.;  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  (Am.  Nation, 
XIII.),  chap.  xiii. 


1819]  CRISIS   OF    1819  137 

west  were  able  to  redeem  their  notes  in  specie  be- 
fore 1822;  but  they  pressed  their  debtors  harshly. 
Stai)lc  productions  fell  to  less  than  half  of  their  for- 
mer price;  land  values  declined  fifty  to  seventy  per 
cent. ;  manufacturers  were  in  distress ;  laborers  were 
out  of  work;  merchants  were  ruined.^  The  condi- 
tions are  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Cincinnati.  By 
the  foreclosure  of  mortgages,  the  national  bank 
came  to  own  a  large  part  of  the  city — hotels,  coffee- 
houses, warehouses,  stables,  iron  foundries,  resi- 
dences, and  vacant  lots.  "All  the  flourishing  cities 
of  the  West,"  cried  Benton,  "are  mortgaged  to  this 
money  power.  They  may  be  devoured  by  it  at  any 
moment.  They  are  in  the  jaws  of  the  monster!" 
Throughout  the  south  and  west  the  bank  became 
familiarly  known  as  The  Monster.^ 

Even  in  the  days  of  its  laxity  the  national  bank 
was  obnoxious  in  many  quarters  of  the  country. 
By  the  state  constitution  of  1816  Indiana  attempted 
to  prevent  the  establishment  within  its  limits  of  any 
bank  not  chartered  by  the  state ;  and  Illinois  incor- 
porated a  similar  provision  in  her  constitution  of 
1 818.  Between  181 7  and  181 9  Maryland,  Tennes- 
see, Georgia,  North  Carolina,  Kentucky,  and  Ohio 
all  passed  acts  taxing  the  United  States  Bank.' 
Ohio,  defying  the  decision  of  the  supreme  court  in 


'J.  Q.  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  375;  Jeflferson,  Writings,  X., 
257;  Benton,  Vieu',  I.,  5;  Niles'  Register,  XVI.,  114;  Hodgson, 
Travels,  II.,  12S;  Sumner,  Hist,  of  Banking,  I.,  chaps,  vii.,  viii. 

^  Catterall,  Second  Bank,  67.  ^  Ibid.,  64,  65. 


138  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1818 

the  case  of  McCuUoch  vs.  Maryland,  which  asserted 
the  constitutionality  of  the  bank  and  denied  to  the 
states  the  right  to  tax  it,  forcibly  collected  the  tax 
and  practically  outlawed  the  bank.* 

From  the  beginning  of  our  history  the  frontier 
had  been  a  debtor  region,  always  favorable  to  an 
expansion  of  the  currency  and  to  laws  to  relieve  the 
debtor  class.  It  was  but  the  continuation  of  an  old 
practice  when  the  western  legislatures  in  this  time 
of  stringency  attempted  measures  of  relief  for  their 
citizens.  Kentucky's  "litter"  of  forty  banks  char- 
tered in  the  session  of  1818-1819  had  been  forced  to 
the  wall  by  the  measures  of  the  national  bank.  Af- 
ter the  panic,  Kentucky  repealed  the  charters  of  these 
banks  and  incorporated  the  Bank  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Kentucky,  an  institution  without  stock- 
holders and  under  officers  elected  by  the  legislature 
and  paid  by  the  state.  Its  notes  were  assigned  to 
the  counties  in  proportion  to  the  taxable  property, 
to  be  loaned  on  mortgage  securities  to  those  who 
needed  them  "  for  the  purpose  of  paying  his,  her  or 
their  just  debts,"  or  to  purchase  products  for  expor- 
tation. The  only  real  capital  of  the  bank  was  a 
legislative  appropriation  of  seven  thousand  dollars 
to  buy  the  material  and  plates  for  printing  notes. 
In  short,  the  treasury  of  the  state  was  used  as  a 
kind  of  land  bank  of  the  sort  favored  in  colonial 
days  for  the  relief  of  the  debtors.^     The  legislature 

'  See  chap,  xv.,  below. 

*  Cf.  Greene,  Provincial  America  (Am.  Nation,  VI.),  chap.  xvii. 


1826]  CRISIS   OF    1819  139 

then  passed  a  replevin  law  giving  the  debtor  a  delay 
oi  two  years  to  satisfy  an  execution,  in  case  the 
creditor  refused  to  accept  notes  of  the  Bank  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Kentucky  as  payment;  otherwise 
the  debtor  received  an  extension  of  but  one  year. 
By  another  law,  land  could  not  be  sold  under  execu- 
tion to  pay  a  debt  unless  it  brought  three-fourths  of 
its  value  as  appraised  by  a  board  of  neighbors, 
usually  themselves  debtors  and  interested  in  sup- 
porting values. 

In  1823  the  court  of  appeals  of  Kentucky  de- 
clared the  replevin  and  stay  laws  unconstitutional. 
In  retaliation  the  legislature,  in  December,  1824,  re- 
pealed the  law  establishing  the  court  of  appeals,  and 
a  new  court  was  created  favorable  to  the  "relief 
system."  This  act  the  old  court  also  declared  un- 
constitutional, and  a  contest  followed  between  the 
"old  court"  and  the  "new  court"  parties,  which 
lasted  until  1826,  when  the  "old  court,"  "anti- 
relief"  party  was  victorious.  In  the  mean  time, 
similar  relief  measures  had  been  passed  in  Tennes- 
see, Illinois,  Missouri,  and  other  western  states.' 

The  distress  brought  about  by  the  panic  of  1819, 
the  popular  antagonism  to  banks  in  general,  and 
especially  to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  as 
"  engines  of  aristocracy, "  oppressive  to  the  common 
people,  and  the  general  discontent  with  the  estab- 

'  Sumner,  Hist,  of  Banking,  I.,  chap.  x. ;  ibid.,  122,  146,  157, 
161;  Durrett,  Centenary  of  Louisville;  McMaster,  United  States, 
v.,  160. 


I40  RISE   OF  THE   NEW   WEST  [1818 

lished  order,  had,  as  we  have  seen,  produced  a  move- 
ment comparable  to  the  populistic  agitation  of  our 
own  time. 

Upon  the  general  government  the  first  effect  of 
this  period  of  distress  was  a  general  reduction  of 
the  revenue.  Imports  fell  from  about  $121,000,000 
in  1818  to  $87,000,000  in  1819.  Customs  receipts, 
which  in  1816  were  over  $36,000,000,  were  but 
$13,000,000  in  182 1.  Receipts  for  public  lands, 
which  amounted  to  $3,274,000  in  1819,  were  but 
$1,635,000  in  1820.  In  December,  1819,  Crawford, 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  was  obliged  to  an- 
nounce a  deficit  which  required  either  a  reduction 
in  expenditures  or  an  increase  in  revenue.  Congress 
provided  for  two  loans,  one  of  $3,000,000  in  1820, 
and  another  of  $5,000,000  in  1821.  A  policy  of 
retrenchment  was  vigorously  instituted,  levelled 
chiefly  at  the  department  of  war.  Internal  im- 
provement schemes  which  had  been  urged  in  Con- 
gress in  1 81 8  were  now  temporarily  put  to  rest. 
With  the  year  1822,  however,  conditions  brightened, 
and  the  treasury  began  a  long  term  of  prosperity.^ 

One  of  the  most  important  results  of  the  crisis 
was  the  complete  reorganization  of  the  system  of 
disposal  of  the  public  lands.  The  public  domain  was 
more  than  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  general  gov- 
ernment; it  was  one  of  the  most  profoundly  influ- 
ential factors  in  shaping  American  social  conditions. 
The  settler  who  entered  the  wilderness  with  but  a 
*  Dewey,  Financial  Hist,  of  the  U.  S.,  168. 


i82o]  CRISIS   OF    1819  141 

small  capital,  or  who  became  a  squatter  on  the  pub- 
lic lands  without  legal  title,  was  impatient  with  the 
policy  which  made  revenue  the  primary  consider- 
ation of  the  government.  Benton  expressed  this 
view  in  1826,*  when  he  said:  "I  speak  to  statesmen, 
and  not  to  compting  clerks;  to  Senators,  and  not 
to  QucBstors  of  provinces ;  to  an  assembly  of  legisla- 
tors, and  not  to  a  keeper  of  the  King's  forests,  I 
speak  to  Senators  who  know  this  to  be  a  Republic, 
not  a  Monarchy;  who  know  that  the  public  lands 
belong  to  the  People  and  not  to  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment." The  effect  of  the  credit  system  had  been, 
as  we  have  seen,  to  stimulate  speculation  and  to 
plunge  the  settlers  deeply  in  debt  to  the  general 
government. 

By  1820  these  payments  for  the  public  lands  were 
over  twenty-two  million  dollars  in  arrears.  Relief 
measures  passed  by  Congress  from  time  to  time  had 
extended  the  period  of  payment  and  made  other 
concessions.  Now  the  government  had  to  face  the 
problem  of  reconstructing  its  land  laws  or  of  con- 
tinuing the  old  credit  system  and  relentlessly  expel- 
ling the  delinquent  purchasers  from  their  hard-won 
homes  on  the  public  domain.  Although  the  legal 
title  remained  in  the  government,  the  latter  alter- 
native was  so  obviously  dangerous  and  inexpedi- 
ent that  Congress  passed  two  new  acts.  The  first  ^ 
(April   24,   1820)   reduced   the   price   of  land   from 

^  Register  of  Debates,  19  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  727. 
^  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,  III.,  566. 


142  RISE   OF  THE   NEW  WEST  [1820 

two  dollars  to  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per 
acre,  abolished  the  system  of  credit,  and  provided 
that  lands  might  be  purchased  in  multiples  of  eighty 
acres.  Thus  the  settler  with  one  hundred  dollars 
could  secure  full  title  to  a  farm.  This  was  followed 
by  a  relief  act  (March  2,  1821),  recommended  by 
Secretary  Crawford,^  allowing  previous  purchasers 
to  relinquish  their  claims  to  land  for  which  they  had 
not  paid,  and  apply  payments  already  made  to  full 
purchase  of  a  portion  of  the  land  to  be  retained 
by  the  buyer,  all  overdue  interest  to  be  remitted.^ 
It  is  significant  that  this  system  was  not  unlike  the 
relief  system  which  had  been  so  popular  in  the 
west. 

This  adjustment  of  the  land  question  by  no 
means  closed  the  agitation.  A  few  years  later  Ben- 
ton repeatedly  urged  Congress  to  graduate  the  price 
of  public  lands  according  to  their  real  value,  and  to 
donate  to  actual  settlers  lands  which  remained  un- 
sold after  they  had  been  offered  at  fifty  cents  an 
acre.^  The  argument  rested  chiefly  on  the  large 
number  of  men  unable  to  secure  a  farm  even  under 
the  cheaper  price  of  1820;  the  great  quantity  of 
public  land  which  remained  unsold  after  it  had  been 
offered;  the  advantage  to  the  revenues  from  filling 
the  vacant  lands  with  a  productive  population ;  and 
the  injustice  to  the  western  states,  which  found  them- 

'  Am.  State  Paps.,  Finance,  III.,  551;  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large, 
III.,  566.  Ubid.,  III.,  612. 

^  Speech  in  the  Senate,  May  16,  1826,  Meigs,  Benton,  163-170. 


i82o]  CRISIS   OF    1819  143 

selves  unable  to  obtain  revenue  by  taxing  unsold 
public  lands  and  which  were  limited  in  their  power 
of  eminent  domain  and  jurisdiction  as  compared 
with  the  eastern  states,  which  owned  their  public 
lands.  In  this  agitation  lay  the  germs  of  the  later 
homestead  system,  as  well  as  of  the  propositions  to 
relinquish  the  federal  public  lands  to  the  states 
within  which  they  lay. 

With  manufacturers  in  distress,  thousands  of  oper- 
atives out  of  employment,  and  the  crops  of  parts  of 
the  middle  states  and  the  west  falling  in  price  to  a 
point  where  it  hardly  paid  to  produce  them,  an 
appeal  to  Congress  to  raise  the  duties  established 
by  the  tariff  of  1816^  was  inevitable.  Hence,  in  the 
spring  of  1820  a  new  tariff  bill  was  presented  by 
Baldwin,  of  Pennsylvania,  the  member  from  Pitts- 
burg. He  came  from  a  city  which  felt  the  full 
effects  of  the  distress  of  the  manufacturers,  especially 
those  of  iron  and  glass,  and  which  was  one  of  the 
important  centres  of  the  great  grain-raising  area  of 
the  middle  states  and  the  Ohio  Valley. 

Baldwin  believed  that  the  time  had  arrived  when, 
"  all  the  great  interests  of  the  country  being  equally 
prostrate,  and  one  general  scene  of  distress  pervad- 
ing all  its  parts,"  there  should  be  a  common  effort 
to  improve  conditions  by  a  new  tariff,  intended  not 
for  the  sake  of  restoring  the  depleted  treasury,  but 
distinctly  for  protection.  Its  advocates  proposed 
to  meet  the  failure  of  the  system  of  revenue,  not  by 

1  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  {Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap.  xiv. 

VOL.    XIV. — H 


144  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

encouraging  importations,  but  by  internal  taxes  and 
excises  on  the  manufactured  goods  protected  by  the 
impost.  Additional  revenue  would  be  secured  by 
higher  duties  on  sugar,  molasses,  coffee,  and  salt. 
The  bill  increased  ad  valorem  duties  by  an  amount 
varying  from  twenty-five  to  sixty-six  per  cent,  ad- 
ditional. For  woollen  and  cotton  manufactures  the 
rate  of  additional  duty  was  about  one-third;  on 
hemp,  an  important  product  in  Kentucky,  about 
two-thirds.  Duty  on  forged  iron  bars  was  increased 
from  seventy-five  cents  to  one  dollar  and  twenty- 
five  cents  per  hundred -weight.  On  many  other  arti- 
cles the  increase  of  duty  amounted  to  from  twenty 
to  one  hundred  per  cent. 

Naturally  the  home-market  argument  played  an 
important  part  in  the  debates.  It  was  relied  upon 
especially  by  Henry  Clay  in  his  closing  speech,*  in 
which  he  argued  that  the  rapidity  of  growth  of  the 
United  States  as  compared  with  Europe  made  the 
ratio  of  the  increase  of  her  capacity  of  consumption 
to  that  of  our  capacity  of  production  as  one  to  four. 
Already  he  thought  Europe  was  showing  a  want  of 
capacity  to  consume  our  surplus;  in  his  opinion, 
cotton,  tobacco,  and  bread-stuffs  had  already  reached 
the  maximum  of  foreign  demand.  From  this  he 
argued  that  home  manufactures  should  be  encour- 
aged to  consume  the  surplus,  and  that  some  por- 
tion of  American  industry  should  be  diverted  from 
agriculture  to  manufacturing. 

•  Annals  of  Cong.,  16  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  II.,  2034. 


i82o]  CRISIS   OF    1819  145 

Industrial  independence  also  required  this  action. 
England  had  recently  imposed  new  duties  on  wool 
and  cotton,  and  her  corn  laws  contributed  to  limit 
her  demand  for  our  flour.  " I  am,  too,"  he  said,  "a 
friend  of  free  trade,  but  it  must  be  a  free  trade  of 
perfect  reciprocity.  If  the  governing  considerations 
were  cheapness;  if  national  independence  were  to 
weigh  nothing  ;  if  honor  nothing;  why  not  sub- 
sidize foreign  powers  to  defend  us?"  He  met  the 
argument  of  the  deficiency  of  labor  and  of  the  dan- 
ger of  developing  overcrowded  and  pauperized  man- 
ufacturing centres  by  reasoning  that  machinery 
would  enable  the  Americans  to  atone  for  their  lack 
of  laborers ;  and  that  while  distance  and  attachment 
to  the  native  soil  would  check  undue  migration  of 
laborers  to  the  west,  at  the  same  time  the  danger  of 
congestion  in  the  east  would  be  avoided  by  the  at- 
traction of  the  cheap  western  lands. 

Lowndes,  of  South  Carolina,  who  with  Calhoun 
had  been  one  of  the  prominent  supporters  of  the 
tariff  in  1816,  now  made  the  principal  speech  in  op- 
position :  he  denied  the  validity  of  the  argument  in 
favor  of  a  home  market  and  contended  that  the 
supply  of  domestic  grain  would  in  any  case  exceed 
the  demand;  and  that,  however  small  the  export, 
the  price  of  the  portion  sent  abroad  would  determine 
that  of  the  whole.  It  is  important  to  observe  that 
the  question  of  constitutionality  was  hardly  raised. 
The  final  vote  in  the  House  (April  29,  1820)  stood 
91  to  78.     New  England  gave   18  votes   in  favor 


146  RISE   OF  THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

and  17  opposed;  the  middle  region,  including  Del- 
aware, gave  56  votes  for  and  i  vote  against;  the 
south,  including  Maryland  and  her  sister  states  on 
the  southern  seaboard,  gave  5  votes  in  favor  and 
50  opposed.  The  northwest  gave  its  8  votes  in 
favor,  and  the  southwest,  including  Kentucky,  gave 
4  votes  in  favor  and  10  opposed.  The  vote  of  New 
England  was  the  most  divided  of  that  of  any  sec- 
tion. From  the  manufacturing  states  of  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island  but  one  member,  a  Connecticut 
man,  voted  in  opposition  to  the  bill.  The  only  3 
negative  votes  from  Massachusetts  proper  came 
from  the  commercial  region  of  Boston  and  Salem. 
That  portion  of  Massachusetts  soon  to  become  the 
state  of  Maine  gave  4  votes  in  opposition  and  only 
2  in  favor,  the  latter  coming  from  the  areas  least 
interested  in  the  carrying -trade.  New  Hampshire 
and  Vermont  gave  their  whole  vote  in  opposition, 
except  for  one  affirmative  from  Vermont.  Ken- 
tucky's vote  was  4  in  favor  to  3  opposed.  Speaker 
Clay  not  voting. 

In  general,  the  distribution  of  the  vote  shows  that 
the  maritime  interests  united  with  the  slave-holding 
planters,  engaged  in  producing  tobacco,  cotton,  and 
sugar,  in  opposition.  On  the  other  side,  the  manu- 
facturing areas  joined  with  the  grain  and  wool  rais- 
ing regions  of  the  middle  and  western  states  to  sup- 
port the  measure.  From  the  states  of  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois,  casting  altogether  65  votes,  but  one 


i82o]  CRISIS   OF    1819  147 

man  voted  against  the  bill,  and  he  was  burned  in 
effigy  by  his  constituents  and  resigned  the  same 
year.  Of  the  53  votes  cast  by  the  south  and  south- 
west, outside  of  the  border  states  of  Maryland  and 
Kentucky,  there  were  but  5  affirmative  votes.  It 
is  seen,  therefore,  that  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, on  the  tariff  issue,  the  middle  states  and  the 
Ohio  Valley  were  combined  against  the  south  and 
southwest,  while  New  England's  influence  was  nul- 
lified by  her  division  of  interests.  By  a  single  vote, 
on  a  motion  to  postpone,  the  measure  failed  in  the 
Senate ;  but  the  struggle  was  only  deferred. 

The  most  important  aspect  of  the  panic  of  181 9 
was  its  relation  to  the  forces  of  unrest  and  demo- 
cratic change  that  were  developing  in  the  United 
States.  Calhoun  and  John  Quincy  Adams,  convers- 
ing in  the  spring  of  1820  upon  politics,  had  the 
gloomiest  apprehensions.  There  had  been,  within 
two  years,  Calhoun  said,  "  an  immense  revolution  of 
fortunes  in  every  part  of  the  Union ;  enormous  num- 
bers of  persons  utterly  ruined ;  multitudes  in  deep 
distress;  and  a  general  mass  of  disaffection  to  the 
Government  not  concentrated  in  any  particular  di- 
rection, but  ready  to  seize  upon  any  event  and  look- 
ing out  anywhere  for  a  leader."  They  agreed  that 
the  Missouri  question  and  the  debates  on  the  tariff 
were  merely  incidental  to  this  state  of  things,  and 
that  this  vague  but  wide-spread  discontent,  caused 
by  the  disordered  circumstances  of  individuals,  had 
resulted  in  a  general  impression  that  there  was  some- 


148  RISE   OF   THE   NEW  WEST  [1820 

thing  radically  wrong  in  the  administration  of  the 
government.* 

Although  this  impression  was  the  result  of  deeper 
influences  than  those  to  which  it  was  attributed  by 
these  statesmen,  yet  the  crisis  of  1819,  which  bore 
with  peculiar  heaviness  upon  the  west  and  south, 
undoubtedly  aggravated  all  the  discontent  of  those 
regions.  To  the  historian  the  movement  is  pro- 
foundly significant,  for  ultimately  it  found  its  leader 
in  Andrew  Jackson.  More  immediately  it  led  to  the 
demand  for  legislation  to  prevent  imprisonment  for 
debt,^  to  debates  over  a  national  bankruptcy  law,^ 
to  the  proposal  of  constitutional  amendments  lead- 
ing to  the  diminution  of  the  powers  of  the  supreme 
court,  to  a  reassertion  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
states,'*  and  to  new  legislation  regarding  the  public 
lands  and  the  tariff.  The  next  few  years  bore  clear 
evidence  of  the  deep  influence  which  this  period  of 
distress  had  on  the  politics  and  legislation  of  the 
country. 

'Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  128;  cf.  IV.,  498. 

^  See,  for  example,  Annals  of  Cong.,  16  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  1224; 
McMaster,  United  States,  IV.,  532-535. 

^Annals  of  Cong.,  16  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  I.,  757,  759,  792,  1203 
et  passim.  *  See  chap,  xviii.,  below. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE 
(1819-1821) 

IN  the  dark  period  of  the  commercial  crisis  of  1819, 
while  Congress  was  considering  the  admission  of 
Missouri,  the  slavery  issue  flamed  out,  and  revealed 
with  startling  distinctness  the  political  significance 
of  the  institution,  fateful  and  ominous  for  the  na- 
tion, transcending  in  importance  the  temporary- 
financial  and  industrial  ills. 

The  advance  of  settlement  in  the  United  States 
made  the  slavery  contest  a  struggle  for  power  be- 
tween sections,  marching  in  parallel  columns  into  the 
west,  each  carrying  its  own  system  of  labor.*  By 
18 19  the  various  states  of  the  north,  under  favorable 
conditions  of  climate  and  industrial  life,  had  either 
completely  extinguished  slavery  or  were  in  the  proc- 
ess of  emancipation;^  and  by  the  Ordinance  of  1787 
the  old  Congress  had  excluded  the  institution  in  the 
territory  north  of  the  Ohio  River.  Thus  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line  and  the  Ohio  made  a  boundary  between 
the  slave-holding  and  the  free  streams  of  population 

*  For  previous  questions  of  slavery,  see  Channing,  Jeffersonian 
System  {Am.  Nation,  XII.).  chap.  viii.  "  See  map,  p.  6. 


I50  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1787 

that  flowed  into  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Not  that 
this  line  was  a  complete  barrier:  the  Ordinance  of 
1787  was  not  construed  to  free  the  slaves  already  in 
the  old  French  towns  of  the  territory;  and  many 
southern  masters  brought  their  slaves  into  Ohio,  In- 
diana, and  Illinois  by  virtue  of  laws  which  provided 
for  them  under  the  fiction  of  indented  servants.* 
Indeed,  several  efforts  were  made  in  the  territory  of 
Indiana  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
to  rescind  the  prohibition  of  1787 ;  but  to  this  peti- 
tion Congress,  under  the  strange  leadership  of  John 
Randolph,  gave  a  negative;^  and,  after  a  struggle 
between  the  southern  slavery  and  antislavery  ele- 
ments by  which  the  state  had  been  settled,  Indiana 
entered  the  Union  in  1816  as  a  free  state,  under  an 
agreement  not  to  violate  the  Ordinance  of  1787. 

Illinois,  on  her  admission  in  1818,  also  guaran- 
teed the  provisions  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and, 
not  without  a  contest,  included  in  her  constitution 
an  article  preventing  the  introduction  of  slavery, 
but  so  worded  that  the  system  of  indenture  of  negro 
servants  was  continued  in  a  modified  form.  The  is- 
sue of  slavery  still  continued  to  influence  Illinois  elec- 
tions, and,  as  the  inhabitants  saw  well-to-do  plant- 
ers pass  with  their  slaves  across  the  state  to  recruit 
the  property  and  population  of  Missouri,  a  movement 
(1823-1824)  in  favor  of  revising  their  constitution 
so  as  to  admit  slavery  required  the  most  vigorous 

•  Hams,  Negro  Servitude  in  III.,  10;  Dunn,/«c?fa«a,  chaps.  ix.,x. 

*  Ibid.,  chap,  xii.;  Hinsdale,  Old  Northwest,  chap,  xvjii. 


1827]  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE  151 

opposition  to  hold  the  state  to  freedom.  The  leader 
of  the  antislavery  forces  in  Illinois  was  a  Virginian, 
Governor  Coles  (once  private  secretary  to  President 
Madison),  who  had  migrated  to  free  his  slaves  after 
he  became  convinced  that  it  was  hopeless  to  make 
the  fight  which  Jefferson  advised  him  to  carry  on  in 
favor  of  gradual  emancipation  in  his  native  state/ 
In  both  Indiana  and  Illinois,  the  strength  of  the 
opposition  to  slavery  and  indented  servitude  came 
from  the  poorer  whites,  particularly  from  the  Quaker 
and  Baptist  elements  of  the  southern  stock,  and 
from  the  northern  settlers. 

In  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina,  ever 
since  the  decline  of  the  tobacco  culture,  a  strong 
opposition  to  slavery  had  existed,  shown  in  the  votes 
of  those  states  on  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and  in  the 
fact  that  as  late  as  1827  the  great  majority  of  the 
abolition  societies  of  the  United  States  were  to  be 
found  in  this  region.^  But  the  problem  of  dealing 
with  the  free  negro  weighed  upon  the  south.  Even 
in  the  north  these  people  were  unwelcome.  They 
frequently  became  a  charge  upon  the  community, 
and  they  were  placed  under  numerous  disabilities.' 

The  idea  of  deporting  freedmen  from  the  United 

*  Harris,  Negro  Servitude  in  III.,  chap.  iv. ;  Washbume,  Coles, 
chaps,  iii.,  v. 

2  Dunn,  Indiana,  190;  'Ba.ss,eil,m  Johns  Hopkins  Univ. Studies, 
XVI.,  No.  vi.;  cf.  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition  {Am.  Nation, 
XVI.),  chap.  xi. 

'  McMaster,  United  States,  IV.,  558;  Gordy,  Political  Hist,  of 
U.  S.,  II.,  405. 


152  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1816 

States  found  support  both  among  the  humanitarians, 
who  saw  in  it  a  step  towards  general  emancipation, 
and  among  the  slave-holders  who  viewed  the  in- 
crease of  the  free  negroes  with  apprehension.  To 
promote  this  solution  of  the  problem,  the  Coloniza- 
tion Society  ^  was  incorporated  in  181 6,  and  it  found 
support,  not  only  from  antislavery  agitators  like 
Lundy,  who  edited  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emanci- 
pation at  Baltimore,  but  also  from  slave-holders  like 
Jefferson,  Clay,  and  Randolph.  It  was  the  design 
of  this  society  to  found  on  the  coast  of  Africa  a 
colony  of  free  blacks,  brought  from  the  United 
States.  Although,  after  unsuccessful  efforts,  Li- 
beria was  finally  established  in  the  twenties,  with 
the  assistance  of  the  general  government  (but  not 
under  its  jurisdiction),  it  never  promoted  state 
emancipation.  Nevertheless,  at  first  it  met  with 
much  sympathy  in  Virginia,  where  in  1820  the  gov- 
ernor proposed  to  the  legislature  the  use  of  one- 
third  of  the  state  revenue  as  a  fund  to  promote  the 
emancipation  and  deportation  of  the  negroes.^ 

The  unprofitableness  of  slavery  in  the  border 
states,  where  outworn  fields,  the  decline  of  tobacco 
culture,  and  the  competition  of  western  lands  bore 
hard  on  the  planter,^  now  became  an  argument  in 

'McPherson,  Ltfemo;  McMaster,  United  States,  IV.,  556  et  seq. 

2  Jeflferson,  Writings  (Ford's  ed.),  X.,  173,  178;  Niles'  Register, 
XVII.,  363;  King,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  342;  Adams, 
Memoirs,  IV.,  293. 

*  See  chap.  iv.  below;  'B.axt, Slavery  and  Abolition  {Am.  Nation, 
XVI.),  chap.  iv. 


i82o]  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE  153 

favor  of  permitting  slavery  to  pass  freely  into  the 
new  country  of  the  west.  Any  limitation  of  the 
area  of  slavery  would  diminish  the  value  of  the 
slaves  and  would  leave  the  old  south  to  support, 
under  increasingly  hard  conditions,  the  redundant 
and  unwelcome  slave  population  in  its  midst.  The 
hard  times  from  1817  to  1820  rendered  slave  prop- 
erty a  still  greater  burden  to  Virginia.  Moreover,  "^ 
the  increase  of  the  proportion  of  slaves  to  whites,  if 
slavery  were  confined  to  the  region  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, might  eventually  make  possible  a  servile  in- 
surrection, particularly  if  foreign  war  should  break 
out.  All  of  these  difficulties  would  be  met,  in  the  ^ 
opinion  of  the  south,  by  scattering  the  existing 
slaves  and  thus  mitigating  the  evil  without  increas-  \ 
ing  the  number  of  those  in  bondage. 

It  was  seen  that  the  struggle  was  not  simply  one~  j 
of  morals  and  of  rival  social  and  industrial  institu- 
tions, but  was  a  question  of  political  power  between 
the  two  great  and  opposing  sections," interested,  on 
the  one  side,  in  manufacturing  and  in  the  raising  of 
food  products  under  a  system  of  free  labor;  and,  on 
the  other,,  in  the  production  of  the  great  staples, 
cotton,  tobacco,  and  sugar,  by  the  use  of  slave  labor^ 
Already  the  southern  section  had  shown  its  opposi- 
tion to  tariff  and  internal  improvements,  which  the 
majority  of  the  northern  states  vehemently  favored. 
In  other  words,  the  slavery  issue  was  seen  to  be  a^w 
struggle  for  sectional  domination.  / 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nation  in  1790,  the  popu- 


154  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1800 

lation  of  the  north  and  the  south  was  almost  ex- 
actly balanced.  Steadily,  however,  the  free  states 
drew  ahead,  until  in  1820  they  possessed  a  popula- 
tion of  5,152,000  against  4,485,000  for  the  slave- 
holding  states  and  territories;  and  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  by  the  operation  of  the  three-fifths 
ratio,  the  free  states  could  muster  105  votes  to  but 
81  for  the  slave  states.  Thus  power  had  passed 
definitely  to  the  north  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. The  instinct  for  self-preservation  that  led  the 
planters  to  stand  out  against  an  apportionment  in 
their  legislatures  which  would  throw  power  into  the 
hands  of  non-slaveholders  now  led  them  to  seek  for 
some  means  to  protect  the  interests  of  their  minority 
section  in  the  nation  as  a  whole.  The  Senate  offered 
such  an  opportunity :  by  the  alternate  admission  of 
free  and  slave  states  from  1802  to  18 18,  out  of  the 
twenty-two  states  of  the  nation  eleven  were  slave- 
holding  and  eleven  free.  If  the  south  retained  this 
balance,  the  Senate  could  block  the  action  of  the 
majority  which  controlled  the  lower  House. 

Such  was  the  situation  when  the  application  of 
Missouri  for  admission  as  a  state  in  1 819  presented  to 
Congress  the  whole  question  of  slavery  beyond  the 
Mississippi,  where  freedom  and  slavery  had  found  a 
new  fighting-ground.  East  of  the  Mississippi  the  Ohio 
was  a  natural  dividing-line ;  farther  west  there  ap- 
peared no  obvious  boundary  between  slavery  and 
freedom.  By  a  natural  process  of  selection,  the 
valleys  of  the  western  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi, 


iSig]  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE  155 

as  far  north  as  the  Arkansas  and  Missouri,  in  which 
slaves  had  been  allowed  while  it  was  a  part  of  French 
and  Spanish  Louisiana  (no  restraints  having  been 
imposed  by  Congress),  received  an  increasing  pro- 
portion of  the  slave-holding  planters.  It  would,  in 
the  ordinary  course  of  events,  become  the  area  of 
slave  states. 

The  struggle  began  in  the  House  of  Representa-\ 
tives,  when  the  application  of  Missouri  for  state- 
hood was  met  by  an  amendment,  introduced  by 
Tallmadge  of  New  York,  February  13,  1819,*  pro-_ 
viding  that  further  introduction  of  slavery  be  pro- 
hibited, and  that  all  children  born  within  the  state 
after  admission  should  be  free  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
five  years. ^  Tallmadge  had  already  shown  his  atti-»-- 
tude  on  this  question  when  in  181 8  he  opposed  the 
admission  of  Illinois  under  its  constitution,  which 
seemed  to  him  to  make  insufficient  barriers  to 
slavery.  Brief  as  was  the  first  Missouri  debate,  the 
whole  subject  was  opened  up  by  arguments  to  which 
later  discussion  added  but  little.  The  speaker, 
Henry  Clay,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  early  in  his>(^ 
political  career  he  had  favored  gradual  emancipation 
in  Kentucky,  led  the  opposition  to  restriction.  His 
principal  reliance  was  upon  the  arguments  that  the 
evils  of  slavery  would  be  mitigated  by  diffusion,  and 
that  the  proposed  restriction  was  unconstitutional. 
Tallmadge  and  Taylor,  of  New  York,  combated  these 

^Annals  of  Cong.,  15  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  I.,  1170. 

'  See  amended  form  in  House  Journal,  15  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  272. 


156  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1819 

arguments  so  vigorously  and  with  such  bold  chal- 
lenge of  the  whole  system  of  slavery  in  new  terri- 
tories, that  Cobb,  of  Georgia,  declared,  "You  have 
kindled  a  fire  which  all  the  waters  of  the  ocean  can- 
not put  out,  which  seas  of  blood  can  only  extin- 
guish." » 

The  first  clause  of  Tallmadge's  motion  was  car- 
ried (February  16,  1819)  by  a  vote  of  87  to  76,  and 
the  second  by  82  to  78,^  Taylor  was  emboldened 
to  offer  (February  18)  to  the  bill  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  Arkansas  territory  an  amendment  by  which 
slavery  should  be  excluded,  whereupon  McLane,  of 
Delaware,  tentatively  proposed  that  a  line  should 
be  drawn  west  of  the  Mississippi,  dividing  the  terri- 
tories between  freedom  and  slavery.  Thus  early 
was  the  whole  question  presented  to  Congress.     In 

)the  Senate,  Tallmadge's  amendment  was  lost  (Feb- 
ruary 27)  by  a  vote  of  22  to  16,  several  northern 
senators  adhering  to  the  south;  and  Congress  ad- 
Vjourned  without  action.^ 

The  issue  was  then  transferred  to  the  people,  and 
in  all  quarters  of  the  Union  vehement  discussions 
took  place  upon  the  question  of  imposing  an  anti- 
slavery  restriction  upon  Missouri.  Mass-meetings 
in  the  northern  states  took  up  the  agitation,  and 
various  state  legislatures,  including  Pennsylvania, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Ohio,  and  even  the  slave 
state  of  Delaware,  passed  resolutions  with  substan- 

^  Annals  of  Cong.,  15  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  I.,  1204.  ^  Ibid.,  1214. 

'  But  Arkansas  was  organized  as  a  territory  without  restriction . 


i8i9]  MISSOURI    COMPROMISE  157 

tial  unanimity  against  the  further  introduction  of 
slaves  into  the  territories  of  the  United  States,  and 
against  the  admission  of  new  slave  states.  Penn- 
sylvania, so  long  the  trusted  ally  of  the  south,  in- 
voked her  sister  states  "  to  refuse  to  covenant  with 
crime"  by  spreading  the  "cruelties  of  slavery,  from 
the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific."  From  the  south  came  equally  insistent 
protests  against  restriction.* 

No  argument  in  the  debate  in  181 9  was  more  ef- 
fective than  the  speech  of  Rufus  King  in  the  Sen- 
ate, which  was  widely  circulated  as  a  campaign 
document  expressing  the  northern  view.  King's 
antislavery  attitude,  shown  as  early  as  1785,  when 
he  made  an  earnest  fight  to  secure  the  exclusion  of 
slavery  from  the  territories,^  was  clearly  stated  in 
his  constitutional  argument  in  favor  of  restriction 
on  Missouri,  and  his  speech  may  be  accepted  as 
typical.^  But  it  was  also  the  speech  of  an  old-time 
Federalist,  apprehensive  of  the  growth  of  western 
power  under  southern  leadership. 

He  held  that,  under  the  power  of  making  all  need- 
ful rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  and 
other  property  of  the  United  States,  Congress  had 
the  right  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the  Louisiana  pur- 

»  Niles'  Register,  XVII.,  296,  307,  334,  342-344,  395,  399,  400, 
416;  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  5,  p.  4. 

2  McLaughlin,  Confederation  and  Constitution  (Am.  Nation,  X.), 
chap.  vii. 

'  Niles'  Register,  XVII.,  215;  King,  Life  and  Carres  p.  of  King, 
VI.,  690. 


158  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1819 

chase,  which  belonged  to  the  United  States  in  full 
dominion.     Congress  was  further  empowered,  but 
\  not  required,  to  admit  new  states  into  the  Union. 
I  Since  the  Constitution  contained  no  express  pro- 
I  vision  respecting  slavery  in  a  new  state,  Congress 
V  could  make  the  perpetual  prohibition  of  slavery  a 
condition  of  admission.     In  support  of  this  argu- 
ment, King  appealed  to  the  precedent  of  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787,  and  of  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
\    Illinois,  all  admitted  on  the  conditions  expressed  in 
^'  that  ordinance.     In  admitting  the  state  of  Louisiana 
in  181 2,  a  different  group  of  conditions  had  been 
attached,  such  as  the  requirement  of  the  use  of  the 
English   language   in  judicial   and   legislative   pro- 
ceedings. 

The  next  question  was  the  effect  of  the  Louisiana 
treaty,  by  which  the  United  States  had  made  this 
promise:  "The  inhabitants  of  the  ceded  territory 
shall  be  incorporated  in  the  Union  of  the  United 
States,  and  admitted  as  soon  as  possible,  according 
to  the  principles  of  the  Federal  constitution,  to  the 
enjoyment  of  all  the  rights,  advantages  and  immuni- 
ties of  citizens  of  the  United  States ;  and  in  the  mean 
time  they  shall  be  maintained  and  protected  in  the 
free  enjoyment  of  their  liberty,  property  and  the 
religion  which  they  profess."  *  King  contended 
that,  by  the  admission  of  Missouri  to  the  Union,  its 
inhabitants  would  obtain  all  of  the  "federal"  rights 
which  citizens  of  the  United  States  derived  from  its 

*  U.  S.  Treaties  and  Conventions,  332. 


i8i9]  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE  159 

Constitution,  though  not  the  rights  derived  from  the 
constitutions  and  laws  of  the  various  states.  In  his 
opinion,  the  term  property  did  not  describe  slaves, 
inasmuch  as  the  terms  of  the  treaty  should  be  con- 
strued according  to  diplomatic  usage,  and  not  all 
nations  permitted  slavery.  In  any  case,  property  ac- 
quired since  the  territory  was  occupied  by  the  United 
States  was  not  included  in  the  treaty,  and,  therefore, 
the  prohibition  of  the  future  introduction  of  slaves 
into  Missouri  would  not  affect  its  guarantees. 

Could  Missouri,  after  admission,  revoke  the  con-'^ 
sent  to  the  exclusion  of  slavery  under  its  powers  as  a 
sovereign  state  ?  Such  action,  King  declared,  would 
be  contrary  to  the  obligations  of  good  faith,  for  even 
sovereigns  were  bound  by  their  engagements.  More- 
over, the  judicial  power  of  the  United  States  would 
deliver  from  bondage  any  person  detained  as  a  slave 
in  a  state  which  had  agreed,  as  a  condition  of  admis- 
sion, that  slavery  should  be  excluded. 

Having  thus  set  forth  the  constitutional  princi- 
ples, King  next  took  up  the  expediency  of  the  exclu- 
sion of  slavery  from  new  states.  He  struck  with 
firm  hand  the  chord  of  sectional  rivalry  in  his  argu- 
ment against  the  injustice  to  the  north  of  creating 
new  slave-holding  states,  which  would  have  a  po- 
litical representation,  under  the  "federal  ratio,"  not 
possessed  by  the  north.  Under  this  provision  for 
counting  three-fifths  of  the  slaves,  five  free  persons 
in  Virginia  (so  he  argued)  had  as  much  power  in  the 
choice  of  representatives  to  Congress  and  in  the 

VOL.    XIV. 12 


i6o  RISE   OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1819 

y  appointment  of  presidential  electors  as  seven  free 
I  persons  in  any  of  the  states  in  which  slavery  did 
ynot  exist.    The  disproportionate  power  and  influence 
allowed  to  the  original  slave-holding  states  was  a 
.necessary  sacrifice  to  the  establishment  of  the  Con- 
stitution;  but  the  arrangement  was  limited  to  the 
old  thirteen  states,  and  was  not  applicable  to  the 
states  made  out  of  territory  since  acquired.     This 
argument  had  been  familiar  to  New  England  ever 
since  the  purchase  of  Louisiana.    Finally,  he  argued 
that  the  safety  of  the  Union  demanded  the  exclusion 
of  slavery  west  of  the  Mississippi,  where  the  exposed 
and  important  frontier  needed  a  barrier  of  free  citi- 
zens against  the  attacks  of  future  assailants. 

To  the  southern  mind,  King's  sectional  appeal 
unblushingly  raised  the  prospect  of  the  rule  of  a  free 
majority  over  a  slave-holding  minority,  the  down- 
fall of  the  ascendency  so  long  held  by  the  south, 
and  the  creation  of  a  new  Union,  in  which  the 
western  states  should  be  admitted  on  terms  of  sub- 
ordination to  the  will  of  the  majority,  whose  power 
"  would  thus  become  perpetual.^ 

When  the  next  Congress  met,  in  December,  181 9, 
the  admission  of  Alabama  was  quickly  completed; 
and  the  House  also  passed  a  bill  admitting  Maine 
to  the  Union,  Massachusetts  having  agreed  to  this 
division  of  the  ancient  commonwealth,  on  condition 

'  King,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  205,  267,  279,  288,  329, 
339-344,  501 ;  Jefferson,  Writings  (Ford's  ed.),  X.,  162,  172,  280; 
Tyler,  Tylers,  I.,  316. 


i82o]  MISSOURI    COMPROMISE 


lOl 


that  consent  of  Congress  should  be  obtained  prior  to 
March  4,  1820.  The  Senate,  quick  to  see  the  oppor- 
tunity afforded  by  the  situation,  combined  the  bill 
for  the  admission  of  Maine  with  that  for  the  unre- 
stricted admission  of  Missouri,  a  proposition  carried 
(February  16,  1820)  by  a  vote  of  23  to  21.  Senator- 
Thomas,  who  represented  Illinois,  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  divided  in  its  interests  on  the  question  of 
slavery,  and  who,  as  the  vote  showed,  could  produce 
a  tie  in  the  Senate,  moved  a  compromise  amend- 
ment, providing  for  the^admisslon  of  Missouri  as  a 
slave  state  and  for  the  prohibition  of  slavery  north 
of  36°  30'  in  the  rest  of  the  Louisiana  purchase;  and 
on  the  next  day  his  amendment  passed  the  Senate 
by  a  vote  of  34  to  10. 

The  debate  in  the  Senate  was  marked  by  another 
speech  of  Rufus  King,  just  re-elected  a  senator  from 
New  York  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote.  With  this 
prestige,  and  the  knowledge  that  the  states  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  York  stood  behind  him,  he  reiter- 
ated his  arguments  with  such  power  that  John  Quincy 
Adams,  who  listened  to  the  debate,  wrote  in  his  diary 
that  "the 'great  slave-holders  in  the  House  gnawed 
their  lips  and  clenched  their  fists  as  they  heard  him."  ^ 

The  case  for  the  south  was  best  presented  by 
William  Pinkney,  of  Maryland,  the  leader  of  the 
American  bar,  a  man  of  fashion,  but  an  orator  of  the 
first  rank.     His  argument,  on  lines  that  the  debates 

1  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  522 ;  se?  Cong.  Globe,  30  Cong.,  2  Sess., 
App.  63-67. 


i62  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

had  made  familiar,  was  stated  with  such  eloquence, 
force,  and  graphic  power  that  it  produced  the  ef- 
fect of  a  new  presentation.  Waiving  the  question 
whether  Congress  might  refuse  admission  to  a  state, 
he  held  that,  if  it  were  admitted,  it  was  admitted 
into  a  union  of  equals,  and  hence  could  not  be  sub- 
jected to  any  special  restriction.^  Without  denying 
the  danger  of  the  extension  of  slavery,  he  argued 
that  it  was  not  for  Congress  to  stay  the  course  of 
this  dark  torrent.  "If  you  have  power,"  said  he, 
"to  restrict  the  new  states  on  admission,  you  may 
squeeze  a  new-born  sovereign  state  to  the  size  of  a 
pigmy."  There  would  be  nothing  to  hinder  Con- 
gress "from  plundering  power  after  power  at  the 
expense  of  the  new  states,"  until  they  should  be  left 
empty  shadows  of  domestic  sovereignty,  in  a  union 
between  giants  and  dwarfs,  between  power  and 
feebleness.  In  vivid  oratory  he  conjured  up  this 
vision  of  an  unequal  union,  into  which  the  new  state 
would  enter,  "shorn  of  its  beams,"  a  mere  servant 
of  the  majority.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the 
political  theory  of  a  confederation,  his  contention 
had  force,  and  the  hot-tempered  west  was  not  likely 
to  submit  to  an  inferior  status  in  the  Union.  Never- 
theless, the  debates  and  votes  in  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  1787  seem  to  show  that  the  fathers  of 
the  Constitution  intended  to  leave  Congress  free  to 
impose  limitations  on  the  states  at  admission.^ 

1  Annals  of  Cong.,  16  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  389  et  seq. 

2  Elliot,  Debates,  V.,  492. 


i82o]  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE  163 

In  the  mean  time,  the  House  of  Representatives 
was  continuing  the  discussion  on  the  old  lines. 
Although  the  arguments  brought  out  little  that  had 
not  been  stated  in  the  first  Missouri  debate,  they 
were  restated  day  after  day  with  an  amplitude  and 
a  bitterness  of  feeling  that  aggravated  the  hostility 
between  the  rival  forces.  Even  under  this  provoca- 
tion, most  southern  members  expressed  their  opinions 
on  the  morality  and  expediency  of  slavery  in  lan- 
guage that  affords  a  strange  contrast  to  their  later 
utterances :  in  almost  every  case  they  lamented  its 
existence  and  demanded  its  dispersion  throughout 
the  west  as  a  means  of  alleviating  their  misfortune. 
Although  most  of  the  men  who  spoke  on  the  point 
were  from  the  regions  where  cotton  was  least  culti- 
vated, yet  even  Reid,  of  Georgia,  likened  the  south 
to  an  unfortunate  man  who  "wears  a  cancer  in  his 
bosom."*  Tyler  of  Virginia,  afterwards  president 
of  the  United  States,  characterized  slavery  as  a  dark 
cloud,  and  asked,  "Will  you  permit  the  lightnings 
of  its  wrath  to  break  upon  the  South  when  by  the 
interposition  of  a  wise  system  of  legislation  you 
may  reduce  it  to  a  summer's  cloud?"  ^  John  Ran- 
dolph, the  ultra-southerner,  was  quoted  as  saying 
that  all  the  misfortunes  of  his  life  were  light  in  the 
balance  when  compared  with  the  single  misfortune 
of  having  been  born  a  master  of  slaves. 

In  addition  to  the  argument  of  "mitigation  by 

'  Annals  of  Cong.,  16  Cong.,  1  Sess.,  I.,  1025. 
^  Ibid.,  II.,  1391. 


i64  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

diffusion,"  the  south  urged  the  injustice  of  exclud- 
ing its  citizens  from  the  territories  by  making  it 
impossible  for  the  southern  planter  to  migrate 
thither  with  his  property.  On  the  side  of  the  north, 
it  was  argued  with  equal  energy  that  the  spread  of 
slaves  into  the  west  would  inevitably  increase  their 
numbers  and  strengthen  the  institution.  Since  free 
labor  was  unable  to  work  in  the  midst  of  slave  labor, 
northern  men  would  be  effectively  excluded  from 
the  territories  which  might  be  given  over  to  slavery. 
Economic  law,  it  was  urged,  would  make  it  almost 
certain  that,  in  order  to  supply  the  vast  area  which 
it  was  proposed  to  devote  to  slavery,  the  African 
slave-trade  would  be  reopened.  As  the  struggle 
waxed  hot,  as  the  arguments  brought  out  with  in- 
creasing clearness  the  fundamental  differences  be- 
tween the  sections,  threats  of  disunion  were  freely 
exchanged.^  Even  Clay  predicted  the  existence  of 
several  new  confederacies.^  Nor  were  the  extrem- 
ists of  the  north  unwilling  to  accept  this  alternative.' 
But  the  danger  of  southern  secession  was  dimin- 
ished because  Monroe  was  ready  to  veto  any  bill 
which  excluded  slavery  from  Missouri.'* 

While  still  engaged  in  its  own  debates,  the  House 
received  the  compromise  proposal  from  the  Senate. 
At  first  the  majority  remained  firm  and  refused  to 


*  Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  13,  53;   Benton,  Abridgment  of  Debates, 
XIII.,  607.  ^  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  526. 

'  King,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  274,  286,  287,  387. 

*  Cong.  Globe,  30  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  App.  67. 


i82o]  MISSOURI    COMPROMISE  165 

accept  it.*  March  i,  1820,  the  House  passed  its  own 
bill  imposing  the  restriction  on  Missouri,  by  a  vote 
of  91  to  82.  By.  the  efforts  of  the  compromisers, 
however,  a  committee  of  conference  was  arranged, 
which  on  the  very  next  day  resulted  in  the  sur- 
render of  the  House.  The  vote  on  striking  out  the 
restriction  on  Missouri  was  90  to  87.  New  Eng- 
land gave  7  ayes  to  ^$  nays;  the  middle  states,  8  to 
46;  the  south  cast  58  votes  for  striking  out,  and 
none  against  it;  the  northwest  gave  all  its  8  votes 
against  striking  out  the  restriction;  while  the  17 
southwestern  votes  were  solidly  in  favor  of  admitting 
Missouri  as  a  slave  state. 

Thus,  while  the  southern  phalanx  in  opposition 
remained  firm,  enough  members  were  won  over  from 
the  northern  ranks  to  defeat  the  restrictionists. 
Some  of  these  deserters^  from  the  northern  cause 
were  influenced  by  the  knowledge  that  the  admis- 
sion of  Maine  would  fail  without  this  concession; 
others,  by  the  constitutional  argument;  others,  by 
the  fear  of  disunion ;  and  still  others,  by  the  appre- 
hension that  the  unity  of  the  Democratic  party  was 
menaced  by  the  new  sectional  alignment,  which  in- 
cluded among  its  leaders  men  who  had  been  promi- 
nent in  the  councils  of  the  Federalists.  By  the  final  >^ 
solution,  it  was  agreed  (134  to  42)  to  admit  Missouri 


*  Woodbum,  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report  1893,  p.  251-297. 

^  See  King,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  291,  329;  Benton, 
View,  I.,  10;  Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  15,  307.  Randolph  applied 
to  them  the  term  "doughfaces." 


r. 


i66  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1820 

as- a  slave  state  and  Maine  as  a  free  state;  while  all 
^•^oi  the  rest  of  the  territory  possessed  by  the  United 
States  west  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of  36°  30' 
was  pledged  to  freedom. 

Yet  the  fate  of  the  measure  was  uncertain,  for 
some  of  Monroe's  southern  friends  strongly  urged 
him  still  to  veto  the  compromise.'  The  president 
submitted  to  the  cabinet  the  question  whether  Con- 
gress had  the  right  to  prohibit  slavery  in  a  territory, 
and  whether  the  section  of  the  Missouri  bill  which 
interdicted  slavery  forever  in  the  territory  north  of 
36°  30'  was  appHcable  only  to  the  territorial  con- 
dition, or  also  to  states  made  from  the  territory. 
John  Quincy  Adams  notes  in  his  diary  that  "  it  was 
unanimously  agreed  that  Congress  have  the  power 
to  prohibit  slavery  in  the  Territories";  though  he 
adds  that  neither  Crawford,  Calhoun,  nor  Wirt  could 
find  any  express  power  to  that  effect  given  in  the 
Constitution.^  In  order  to  avoid  the  difficulty  aris- 
ing from  the  fact  that  Adams  alone  believed  the 
word  "forever"  to  apply  to  states  as  well  as  terri- 
tories, the  president  modified  the  question  so  that 
all  would  be  able  to  answer  that  the  act  was  con- 
stitutional, leaving  each  member  to  construe  the 
section  to  suit  himself. 

Although  apparently  the  Missouri  struggle  was 
thus  brought  to  a  conclusion,  it  is  necessary  to  take 
note   of  two   succeeding  episodes   in   the   contest, 

^  Cong.  Globe,  30  Cong.,  2  Sess.,App.  64. 
'Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  5. 


i82o]  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE  167 

which  immediately  revived  the  whole  question,  em- 
bittered the  antagonism,  threatened  the  Union,  and 
were  settled  by  new  compromises.  In  her  constitu- 
tion, Missouri  not  only  incorporated  guarantees  of 
a  slavery  system,  but  also  a  provision  against  the. 
admission  of  free  negroes  to  the  state.  Application 
for  admission  to  the  Union  under  this  constitution 
in  the  fall  of  1820  brought  on  a  contest  perhaps  more 
heated  and  more  dangerous  to  the  Union  than  the 
"previous  struggle.  Holding  that  Missouri's  clause 
'  against  free  negroes  infringed  the  provision  of  the 
federal  Constitution  guaranteeing  the  rights  of  citi- 
zens of  the  respective  states,  northern  leaders  re- 
opened the  whole  question  by  refusing  to  vote  for 
the  admission  of  Missouri  with  the  obnoxious  clause. ' 
Again  the  north  revealed  its  mastery  of  the  House, 
and  the  south  its  control  of  the  Senate,  and  a  dead- 
lock followed.  Under  the  skilful  management  of 
Clay,  a  new  compromise  was  framed,  by  which  Mis- 
souri was  required,  through  her  legislature,  to  prom- 
ise that  the  objectionable  clause  should  never  be 
construed  to  authorize  the  passage  of  any  laws  by 
which  any"  citizen  of  either  of  the  states  of  the  Union 
should  be  excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of  any  of  the 
privileges  and  immunities  to  which  such  citizen  was 
entitled  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
This  Missouri  accepted,  but  the  legislature  somewhat 
contemptuously  added  that  it  was  without  power  to 
bind  the  state.* 

^Niles'  Register,  XX.,  388,  cf.  300. 


i68  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1820 

While  this  debate  was  in  progress,  and  the  prob- 
lem of  the  status  of  Missouri,  which  had  already  es- 
tablished a  constitution  and  claimed  to  be  a  state, 
was  under  consideration,  the  question  of  counting 
the  Missouri  vote  in  the  presidential  election  of  1820 
was  raised.  For  this  a  third  compromise  was  framed 
by  Clay,  by  which  the  result  of  the  election  was 
stated  as  it  would  be  with  and  without  Missouri's 
vote.  Since  Monroe  had  been  elected  by  a  vote 
all  but  unanimous,  the  result  was  in  either  case  the 
same;  this  theoretical  question,  nevertheless,  was 
fraught  with  dangerous  possibilities.  Missouri  was 
finally  admitted  by  the  proclamation  of  President 
Monroe,  dated  August  10,  1821,  more  than  three 
years  from  the  first  application  for  statehood. 

In  a  large  view  of  American  history,  the  signifi- 
cance of  this  great  struggle  cannot  be  too  highly 
emphasized.  Although  the  danger  passed  by  and 
the  ocean  became  placid,  yet  the  storm  in  many 
ways  changed  the  coast-line  of  American  politics 
and  broke  new  channels  for  the  progress  of  the  na- 
tion. The  future  had  been  revealed  to  far-sighted 
statesmen,  who  realized  that  this  was  but  the  begin- 
ning, not  the  end,  of  the  stmggle.  "This  momen- 
tous question,"  wrote  Jefferson,  "like  a  fire  bell  in 
the  night,  awakened  and  filled  me  with  terror.  I 
considered  it  at  once  as  the  knell  of  the  Union.  It 
is  hushed,  indeed,  for  the  moment.  But  this  is  a 
reprieve  only,  not  a  final  sentence.  A  geographical 
line,  coinciding  with  a  marked  principle,  moral  and 


i82i]  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE  169 

political,  once  conceived  and  held  up  to  the  angry 
passions  of  men,  will  never  be  obliterated;  and  ev- 
ery new  irritation  will  mark  it  deeper  and  deeper."  ^ 

John  Quincy  Adams  relates  a  contemporaneous 
conversation  with  Calhoun,  in  which  the  latter  took 
the  ground  that,  if  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  should 
follow,  the  south  would  be  compelled  to  form  an 
alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  Great  Britain, 
though  he  admitted  that  it  would  be  returning  pret- 
ty much  to  the  colonial  state.  When  Adams,  with 
unconscious  prophecy  of  Sherman's  march  through 
Georgia,  pressed  Calhoun  with  the  question  whether 
the  north,  cut  off  from  its  natural  outlet  upon  the 
ocean,  "would  fall  back  upon  its  rocks  bound  hand 
and  foot,  to  starve,  or  whether  it  would  not  retain 
its  powers  of  locomotion  to  move  southward  by 
land,"  Calhoun  answered  that  the  southern  states 
would  find  it  necessary  to  make  their  communities 
military.^ 

To  Adams  himself  the  present  question  was  but 
a  "  title  page  to  a  great  tragic  volume."  He  believed 
that,  if  dissolution  of  the  Union  should  result  from 
the  slavery  question,  it  would  be  followed  by  univer- 
sal emancipation  of  the  slaves,  and  he  was  ready  to 
contemplate  such  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  upon 
a  point  involving  slavery  and  no  other,  believing 
that  "the  Union  might  then  be  reorganized  on  the 
fundamental  principle  of  emancipation . "     "  This  ob- 

*  Jefferson,  Writings  (Ford's  ed.),  X.,  157. 
^  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  530,  531. 


I70  RISE   OF  THE   NEW  WEST  [1820 

ject,"  wrote  he,  "is  vast  in  its  compass,  awful  in  its 
prospects,  sublime  and  beautiful  in  its  issue.  A  life 
devoted  to  it  would  be  nobly  spent  or  sacrificed."  ^ 
Looking  forward  to  civil  war,  he  declared:  "So 
glorious  would  be  its  final  issue,  that  as  God  shall 
judge  me  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  not  to  be  desired."  ^ 
But  as  yet  he  confided  these  thoughts  to  his  diary. 

The  south  was  far  from  contented  with  the  com- 
promise, and  her  leading  statesmen,  Calhoun  espe- 
cially, came  bitterly  to  regret  both  the  concession  in 
the  matter  of  admitting  federal  control  over  slavery 
in  the  territories,  and  the  division  of  the  Louisiana 
purchase  into  spheres  of  influence  which  left  to  the 
slave-holding  section  that  small  apex  of  the  triangle 
practically  embraced  in  Arkansas.  While  the  north 
received  an  area  capable  of  being  organized  into 
many  free  states,  the  south  could  expect  from  the 
remaining  territory  awarded  her  only  one  state. 

Among  the  immediate  effects  of  the  contest  was 
its  influence  upon  Monroe,  who  was  the  more  ready 
to  relinquish  the  American  claim  to  Texas  in  the 
negotiations  over  Florida,  because  he  feared  that 
the  acquisition  of  this  southern  province  would 
5  revive  the  antagonism  of  the  northern  antislavery 
forces.^ 

The  south  learned  also  the  lesson  that  slavery 
v^.  needed  defence  against  the  power  of  the  majority, 

'Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  531.  ^  Ibid.,  V.,  210. 

'Monroe,  Writings,  VI.,  127;  cf.  Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  25, 
54.  68. 


i82i]  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE  171 

and  that  it  must  shape  its  political  doctrine  and  its 
policy  to  this  end.  But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to 
emphasize  too  strongly  the  immediate  effect  in  this 
respect.  Slavery  was  not  yet  accepted  as  the  foun- 
dation of  southern  social  and  economic  life.  The 
institution  was  still  mentioned  with  regret  by 
southern  leaders,  and  there  were  still  efforts  in  the 
border  states  to  put  it  in  the  process  of  extinction. 
South  Carolina  leaders  were  still  friendly  to  national 
power,  and  for  several  years  the  ruling  party  in 
that  state  deprecated  appeals  to  state  sovereignty.* 
In  the  next  few  years  other  questions,  of  an  econom- 
ic and  judicial  nature,  were  even  more  influential,  as 
a  direct  issue,  than  the  slavery  question.  But  the 
economic  life  of  the  south  was  based  on  slavery,  and 
the  section  became  increasingly  conscious  that  the/ 
current  of  national  legislation  was  shaped  by  the! 
majority  against  their  interests.  Their  political  alli-j 
ances  in  the  north  had  failed  them  in  the  time  of 
test,  and  the  Missouri  question  disclosed  the  possi- 
bility of  a  new  organization  of  parties  threatening 
that  southern  domination  which  had  swayed  the 
Union  for  the  past  twenty  years.* 

The  slavery  struggle  derived  its  national  signifi- 
cance from  the  west,  into  which  expanding  sections 
carried  warring  institutions. 

*  See  chap,  xviii.  below. 

*  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  529;  King,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King, 
VI.,  501;  Jefferson,  Writings,  X.,  175,  193  n.;  cf.  chap.  xi.  be- 
low; Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition  {Am.  Nation,  XVI.) ,  chap,  xviii. 


CHAPTER   XI 

PARTY  POLITICS 
(1820-1822) 

TO  the  superficial  observer,  politics  might  have 
seemed  never  more  tranquil  than  when,  in  1820, 
James  Monroe  received  all  but  one  of  the  electoral 
votes  for  his  second  term  as  president  of  the  United 
States.  One  New  Hampshire  elector  preferred  John 
Quincy  Adams,  although  he  was  not  a  candidate, 
and  this  deprived  Monroe  of  ranking  with  Washing- 
ton in  the  unanimit}^  of  ofBcial  approval.  But  in 
truth  the  calm  was  deceptive.  The  election  of  1820 
was  an  armistice  rather  than  a  real  test  of  political 
forces.  The  forming  party  factions  were  not  yet 
ready  for  the  final  test  of  strength,  most  of  the  can- 
didates were  members  of  the  cabinet,  and  the  re- 
election of  Monroe,  safe,  conciliatory,  and  judi- 
cious, afforded  an  opportunity  for  postponing  the 
issue. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Missouri  contest  had  in  it 
the  possibility  of  a  revolutionary  division  of  the  Re- 
publican party  into  two  parties  on  sectional  lines. 
The  aged  Jefferson,  keen  of  scent  for  anything  that 
threatened  the  ascendency  of  the  triumphant  democ- 


i82o]  PARTY   POLITICS  173 

racy,  saw  in  the  dissolution  of  the  old  alliance  be- 
tween Virginia  and  the  "  fanaticized  "  Pennsylvania,* 
in  the  heat  of  the  Missouri  conflict,  the  menace  of  a 
revived  Federalist  party,  and  the  loss  of  Virginia's 
northern  following.  So  hotly  did  Virginia  resent  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  that  while  the  question  was 
still  pending,  in  February,  1820,  her  legislative  cau- 
cus, which  had  assembled  to  nominate  presidential 
electors,  indignantly  adjourned  on  learning  that 
Monroe  favored  the  measure.  "I  trust  in  God," 
said  H.  St.  George  Tucker,  "if  the  president  does 
sign  a  bill  to  that  effect,  the  Southern  people  will 
be  able  to  find  some  man  who  has  not  committed 
himself  to  our  foes;  for  such  are,  depend  on  it, 
the  Northern  Politicians."^  But  the  sober  second 
thought  of  Virginia  sustained  Monroe.  On  the  other 
side,  Rufus  King  believed  that  the  issue  of  the  Mis- 
souri question  would  settle  "forever  the  dominion 
of  the  Union."  "Old  Mr.  Adams,"  said  he,  "as  he 
is  the  first,  will  on  this  hypothesis  be  the  last  Presi- 
dent from  a  free  state."  ^ 

The  truth  is  that  the  individual  interests  of  the 
south  were  ■  stronger  in  opposing  than  those  of  the 
north  in  supporting  a  limitation  of  slavery;^  the 
northern  phalanx  had  hardly  formed  before  it  began 

'Jefferson,  Writings  (Ford's  ed.) ,  X.,  161,  171,  172,  177,  179, 
192,  193  «.,  279;  King,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  279,  282, 
299;  Cong.  Globe,  30  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  App.  63-67. 

^  William  and  Mary  College  Quarterly,  X.,  11,  15. 

'  King,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King,  267;  cf.  Adams,  Memoirs, 
IV.,  528.  ^  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  533. 


174  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

to  dissolve/  Nevertheless,  the  Missouri  question 
played  some  part  in  the  elections  in  most  of  the 
states.  In  Pennsylvania,  tmder  the  leadership  of 
Duane,  the  editor  of  the  Aurora,  electors  favorable 
to  Clinton  were  nominated  on  an  antislavery  ticket,^ 
but,  outside  of  Philadelphia  and  the  adjacent  dis- 
trict, this  ticket  received  but  slight  support.  With 
few  exceptions,  the  northern  congressmen  who  had 
voted  with  the  south  failed  of  re-election. 

The  elections  in  the  various  states  in  this  year 
showed  more  political  division  than  was  revealed  by 
the  vote  for  president,  and  they  showed  that  in  state 
politics  the  Federalist  party  was  by  no  means  com- 
pletely extinct.  In  the  congressional  elections  the 
flood  of  Republicanism  left  only  isolated  islands  of 
Federalism  unsubmerged.  In  Massachusetts  eight 
of  the  thirteen  members  professed  this  political  faith ; 
New  York  returned  some  half-dozen  men  whose 
affiliations  were  with  the  same  party ;  from  Pennsyl- 
vania came  a  somewhat  larger  number;  and  they 
numbered  nearly  half  of  the  delegation  of  Maryland. 
The  cities  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  were  repre- 
sented by  Federalists,  and  there  were  three  or  four 
other  districts,  chiefly  in  New  England,  which  ad- 
hered to  the  old  party.  There  were  also  a  few  con- 
gressmen from  the  south  who  had  been  members  of 

'  Benton,   Thirty  Years'  View,  I.,  10. 

"^Miles'  Register,  XIX.,  129;  National  Advocate,  October  27, 
1820;  Franklin  Gazette,  October  25,  November  8,  1820  (elec- 
tion returns) ;  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  5,  p.  5. 


1830]  PARTY   POLITICS  175 

this  organization.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  Fed- 
eralists awaited  the  new  development  of  parties, 
determined  to  secure  the  best  terms  from  those  to 
whom  they  should  transfer  their  allegiance.  In 
New  England,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out,*  the 
toleration  movement  was  completing  its  work  of 
transferring  power  to  democracy. 

More  important  than  local  issues  or  the  death 
throes  of  federalism,  was  the  democratic  tendency 
revealed  in  the  constitutional  conventions  of  this 
period.  Between  18 16  and  1830,  ten  states  either 
established  new  constitutions  or  revised  their  old 
ones.  In  this  the  influence  of  the  new  west  was 
peculiarly  important.  All  of  the  new  states  which 
were  formed  in  that  region,  after  the  War  of  181 2, 
gave  evidence  in  their  constitutions  of  the  demo- 
cratic spirit  of  the  frontier.  With  the  exception  of 
Mississippi,  where  the  voter  was  obliged  either  to  be 
a  tax-payer  or  a  member  of  the  militia,  all  the  western 
states  entered  the  Union  with  manhood  suffrage, 
and  all  of  them,  in  contrast  with  the  south,  from 
which  their  settlers  had  chiefly  been  drawn,  pro- 
vided that  apportionment  of  the  legislature  should 
be  based  upon  the  white  population,  thus  accepting 
the  doctrine  of  the  rule  of  the  majority  rather  than 
that  of  property.  As  the  flood  of  population  moved 
towards  the  west  and  offered  these  attractive  exam- 
ples of  democratic  growth,  the  influence  reacted  on 
the  older  states.     In  her  constitution  of  18 18,  Con- 

'  See  chap.  ii.  above. 

VOL.    XIV. — 13 


176  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1818 

necticut  gave  the  franchise  to  tax-payers  or  members 
of  the  militia,  as  did  Massachusetts  and  New  York 
in  their  constitutions  of  1821.  Maine  provided  in 
her  constitution  of  1820  for  manhood  suffrage,  but 
by  this  time  there  was  but  slight  difference  between 
manhood  suffrage  and  one  based  upon  tax-paying. 

Webster  in  Massachusetts  and  Chancellor  Kent  in 
New  York  viewed  with  alarm  the  prospect  that  free- 
hold property  should  cease  to  be  the  foiindation  of 
government.  Kent  particularly  warned  the  landed 
class  that  "one  master  capitalist  with  his  one  hun- 
dred apprentices,  and  journeymen,  and  agents,  and 
dependents,  will  bear  down  at  the  polls  an  equal 
number  of  farmers  of  small  estates  in  his  vicinity, 
who  cannot  safely  unite  for  their  common  defence."  ^ 
It  was  the  new  counties  of  New  York,  particularly 
those  of  the  western  and  northeastern  frontier,  which 
were  the  stronghold  of  the  reform  movement  in  that 
state.  The  abolition  of  the  council  of  appointments 
and  the  council  of  revision  by  the  New  York  con- 
vention contributed  to  the  transfer  of  power  to  the 
people.  But  under  the  leadership  of  Van  Buren  a 
group  of  politicians,  dubbed  "  The  Albany  Regency," 
controlled  the  political  machinery  as  effectively  as 
before.^ 

The  campaign  for  the  presidency  of  1824  may  be 

*  Carter  and  Stone,  Reports  of  the  Proceedings  and  Debates  of 
tlte  Convention  of  182 1,  222. 

^  McMaster ,  United  States,  V. ,  3  7  3-432 ;  ibid. ,  Rights  of  Man,  6 1 ; 
MacDonald,  Jacksonian  Democracy  {Am.  Nation,  XV.),  chap.  iv. 


i82i]  PARTY   POLITICS  177 

said  to  have  begun  as  early  as  181 6.'  Adams  ob- 
served in  18 18  that  the  government  was  assuming 
daily  the  character  of  cabal,  "and  preparation,  not 
for  the  next  Presidential  election,  but  for  the  one 
after" ;^  and  by  1820,  when  the  political  sea  ap- 
peared so  placid,  and  parties  had  apparently  dis- 
solved, bitter  factional  fights  between  the  friends  of 
the  rival  candidates  constituted  the  really  significant 
indications  of  American  politics.  From  the  details 
of  the  personal  struggles  (usually  less  important  to 
the  student  of  party  history)  one  must  learn  the 
tendency  towards  the  reappearance  of  parties  in  this 
period,  when  idealists  believed  that  all  factions  had 
been  fused  into  one  triumphant  organization.  In 
all  of  the  great  sections,  candidates  appeared,  anx- 
ious to  consolidate  the  support  of  their  own  section 
and  to  win  a  following  in  the  nation.  It  is  time  that 
we  should  survey  these  men,  for  the  personal  traits 
of  the  aspirants  for  the  presidency  had  a  larger  in- 
fluence than  ever  before  or  since  in  the  history  of  the 
country.  Moreover,  we  are  able  to  see  in  these  can- 
didates the  significant  features  of  the  sections  from 
which  they  came. 

New  England  was  reluctantly  and  slowly  coming 
to  the  conclusion  that  John  Quincy  Adams  was  the 
only  available  northern  candidate.  Adams  did  not 
fully  represent  the  characteristics  of  his  section,  for 
he  neither  sprang  from  the  democracy  of  the  interior 
of  New  England  nor  did  he  remain  loyal  to  the  Fed- 

*  Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  89.  ^  Ibid.,  IV.,  193. 


178  RISE   OF  THE   NEW  WEST  [1817 

eralist  ideas  that  controlled  the  commercial  interests 
of  the  coast.  Moreover,  of  all  the  statesmen  whom 
the  nation  produced,  he  had  had  the  largest  oppor- 
tunity to  make  a  comparative  study  of  government. 
As  an  eleven-year-old  boy,  he  went  with  his  father 
to  Paris  in  1778,  and  from  then  until  181 7,  when  he 
became  Monroe's  secretary  of  state,  nearly  half  his 
time  was  spent  at  European  courts.  He  served  in 
France,  Holland,  Sweden,  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Eng- 
land, and  had  been  senator  of  the  United  States 
from  Massachusetts. 

Thus  Adams  entered  on  the  middle  period  of  his 
career,  a  man  of  learning  and  broad  culture,  rich  in 
experience  of  national  affairs,  familiar  with  the  cen- 
tres of  Old-World  civilization  and  with  methods  of 
European  administration.  He  had  touched  life  too 
broadly,  in  too  many  countries,  to  be  provincial  in 
his  policy.  In  the  minds  of  a  large  and  influen- 
tial body  of  his  fellow-citizens,  the  Federalists,  he 
was  an  apostate,  for  in  the  days  of  the  embargo  he 
had  warned  Jefferson  of  the  temper  of  his  section, 
had  resigned,  and  had  been  read  out  of  the  party. 
The  unpopularity,  as  well  as  the  fame,  of  his  father, 
was  the  heritage  of  the  son.  Perhaps  the  most 
decisive  indication  of  the  weakening  of  sectional  bias 
by  his  foreign  training  is  afforded  by  his  diplomatic 
policy.  An  expansionist  by  nature,  he  had  been 
confirmed  in  the  faith  by  his  training  in  foreign 
courts.  "  If  we  are  not  taken  for  Romans  we  shall 
be  taken  for  Jews,"  he  exclaimed  to  one  who  ques- 


i82i]  PARTY   POLITICS  179 

tioned  the  wisdom   of  the  bold  utterances  of  his 
diplomatic  correspondence. 

In  one  important  respect  Adams  was  the  personifi- 
cation of  his  section.  He  was  a  Puritan,  and  his 
whole  career  was  deeply  affected  by  the  fact.  A 
man  of  method  and  regularity,  tireless  in  his  work 
(for  he  rose  before  the  dawn  and  worked  till  mid- 
night), he  never  had  a  childhood  and  never  tried  to 
achieve  self  -  forgetfulness.  His  diary,  printed  in 
twelve  volumes,  is  a  unique  document  for  the  study 
of  the  Puritan  in  politics.  Not  that  it  was  an  en- 
tirely unreserved  expression  of  his  soul,  for  he  wrote 
with  a  consciousness  that  posterity  would  read  the 
record,  and  its  pages  are  a  compound  of  apparently 
spontaneous  revelation  of  his  inmost  thought  and  of 
silence  upon  subjects  of  which  we  would  gladly  know 
more.  He  had  the  Puritan's  restraint,  self -scrutiny, 
and  self-condemnation.  "  I  am,"  he  writes,  *'  a  man 
of  reserved,  cold,  austere,  and  forbidding  manners." 
Nor  can  this  estimate  be  pronounced  unjust.  He 
was  a  lonely  man,  communing  with  his  soul  in  his 
diary  more  than  with  a  circle  of  admiring  friends. 
It  was  not  easy  for  men  to  love  John  Quincy  Ad- 
ams. The  world  may  respect  the  man  who  regu- 
lates his  course  by  a  daily  dead-reckoning,  but  it 
finds  it  easier  to  make  friends  with  him  who  stum- 
bles towards  rectitude  by  the  momentum  of  his 
own  nature.  Popularity,  in  any  deep  sense,  was 
denied  him.  This  deprivation  he  repaid  by  harsh, 
vindictive,  and  censorious  judgments  upon  his  con- 


i8o  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1817 

temporaries,  and  by  indifference  to  popular  preju- 
dices. 

With  the  less  lovely  qualities  of  the  Puritan 
aggravated  by  his  own  critical  nature,  Adams  found 
himself  in  a  struggle  for  the  presidency  against  some 
of  the  most  engaging  personalities  in  American  his- 
tory. He  must  win  over  his  enemies  in  New  Eng- 
land and  attach  that  section  to  his  fortunes ;  he  must 
find  friends  in  the  middle  states,  conciliate  the 
south,  and  procure  a  following  in  the  west,  where 
Clay,  the  Hotspur  of  debate,  with  all  the  power  of 
the  speakership  behind  him,  and  Jackson,  "Old 
Hickory,"  the  hero  of  New  Orleans,  contested  the 
field.  And  all  the  time  he  must  satisfy  his  con- 
science, and  reach  his  goal  by  the  craft  and  strength 
of  his  intellect  rather  than  by  the  arts  of  popular 
management.  No  statesman  ever  handled  the  prob- 
lems of  his  public  career  with  a  keener  understand- 
ing of  the  conditions  of  success. 

The  middle  region  was  too  much  divided  by  the 
game  of  politics  played  by  her  multitude  of  minor 
leaders  to  unite  upon  a  favorite  son  in  this  cam- 
paign; but  De  Witt  Clinton,  finding  elements  of 
strength  in  the  prestige  which  his  successful  advo- 
cacy of  the  Erie  Canal  had  brought  to  him  through- 
out the  region  where  internal  improvements  were 
popular,  and  relying  upon  his  old  connections  with 
the  Federalists,  watched  events  with  eager  eye, 
waiting  for  an  opportunity  which  never  came. 
Although  the  south  saw  in  Rufus  King's  advocacy 


1824]  PARTY   POLITICS  181 

of  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  Missouri  a  deep 
design  to  win  the  presidency  by  an  antislavery 
combination  of  the  northern  states,  there  was  little 
ground  for  this  belief.  In  truth,  the  middle  region 
was  merely  the  fighting-ground  for  leaders  in  the 
other  sections. 

In  the  south,  Calhoun  and  Crawford  were  already 
contending  for  the  mastery.  Each  of  them  repre- 
sented fundamental  tendencies  in  the  section.  Born 
in  Virginia  in  1772,  Crawford  had  migrated  with  his 
father  in  early  childhood  to  South  Carolina,  and  soon 
after  to  Georgia.*  Here  he  became  the  leader  of 
the  Virginia  element  against  the  interior  democracy. 
But  in  his  coarse  strength  and  adaptability  the 
burly  Georgian  showed  the  impress  which  frontier 
influences  had  given  to  his  state.  His  career  in 
national  politics  brought  him  strange  alliances.  This 
Georgia  candidate  had  been  no  mere  subject  of  the 
Virginia  dynasty,  for  he  supported  John  Adams  in 
his  resistance  to  France  in  1798;  challenged  the 
administration  of  Jefferson  by  voting  with  the  Fed- 
eralists in  the  United  States  Senate  against  the 
embargo;  and  ridiculed  the  ambiguous  message  of 
Madison  when  the  issue  of  peace  or  war  with  Great 
Britain  was  under  consideration.  A  fearless  sup- 
porter  of  the  recharter  of  the   national  bank,  he 

^  Phillips,  "Georgia  and  State  Rights,"  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc, 
Report  1901,  II.,  95;  Cobb,  Leisure  Labors;  Miller,  Bench  and 
Bar  of  Georgia;  West,  "Life  and  Times  of  William  H.  Craw- 
ford," in  NaHonal  Portrait  Gallery,  IV.;  Adams,  Lije  of  Gallatin, 
598. 


i82  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1816 

had  championed  the  doctrine  of  implied  powers  and 
denied  the  right  of  a  state  to  resist  the  laws  of  Con- 
gress except  by  changing  its  representation  or  ap- 
pealing to  the  sword  under  the  right  of  revolution. 

Nevertheless,  in  the  period  of  this  volume,  Craw- 
ford joined  the  ranks  of  the  southerners  who  de- 
manded a  return  to  strict  construction  and  insist- 
ence on  state  rights.  In  the  congressional  caucus 
of  1 81 6,  he  obtained  54  votes  for  the  presi- 
dency against  65  for  Monroe.  Had  not  the  influ- 
ence of  Madison  been  thrown  for  the  latter,  it  seems 
probable  that  Crawford  would  have  obtained  the 
nomination;  but  his  strength  in  building  up  a  fol- 
lowing in  Congress  was  much  greater  than  his  popu- 
larity with  the  people  at  large.  Controlling  the 
patronage  of  the  treasury  department,  he  enlarged 
his  political  influence.  As  the  author  of  the  four- 
years' -tenure -of -office  act,  in  1820,  he  has  been 
vehemently  criticised  as  a  founder  of  the  spoils  sys- 
tem. But  there  are  reasons  for  thinking  that  Craw- 
ford's advocacy  of  this  measure  was  based  upon 
considerations  of  efficiency  at  least  as  much  as  those 
of  politics,*  and  the  conduct  of  his  department  was 
marked  by  sagacity.  The  administration  of  such  a 
man  would  probably  have  been  characterized  by  an 
accommodating  spirit  which  would  have  carried  on 
the  traditions  of  Monroe. 

In  the  career  of  Calhoun  are  strikingly  exhibited 
the  changing  characteristics  of  the  south  in  this  era. 

'  Fish,  Civil  Service  and  Patronage,  66  et  seq. 


i824]  PARTY   POLITICS  183 

His  grandfather  was  a  Scotch-Irishman  who  came 
to  Pennsylvania  with  the  emigration  of  that  people 
in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  thence 
followed  the  stream  of  settlement  that  passed  up  the 
Great  Valley  and  into  South  Carolina  to  the  frontier, 
from  which  men  like  Daniel  Boone  crossed  the  moun- 
tains to  the  conquest  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.* 
The  Calhoun  family  were  frontier  Indian  fighters, 
but,  instead  of  crossing  the  mountains  as  did  An- 
drew Jackson,  Calhoun  remained  to  grow  up  with 
his  section  and  to  share  its  changes  from  a  commu- 
nity essentially  western  to  a  cotton-planting  and 
slave-holding  region.     This  is  the  clew  to  his  career. 

In  his  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
181 7,  on  internal  improvements,  Calhoun  warned 
his  colleagues  against  "a  low,  sordid,  selfish,  and 
sectional  spirit,"  and  declared  that  "in  a  country  so 
extensive,  and  so  various  in  its  interests,  what  is 
necessary  for  the  common  good,  may  apparently  be 
opposed  to  the  interests  of  particular  sections.  It 
must  be  submitted  to  as  the  condition  of  our  great- 
ness." ^  This  was  the  voice  of  the  nationalistic 
west,  as  well  as  that  of  South  Carolina  in  Calhoun's 
young  manhood. 

In  view  of  his  later  career,  it  is  significant  that 
many  of  those  who  described  him  in  these  youth- 
ful years  of  his  nationalistic  policy  found  in   him 

'  Cf .  Howard,  Preliminaries  of  the  Revolution  {Am.  Nation, 
VIII.),  chap.  xiii. 

'^  Annals  of  Cong.,  14  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  854,  855. 


i84  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1823 

a  noticeable  tendency  to  rash  speculation  and 
novelty.  "As  a  politician,"  said  Senator  Mills,  of 
Massachusetts,  about  1823,  he  is  "too  theorizing, 
speculative,  and  metaphysical, — magnificent  in  his 
views  of  the  powers  and  capacities  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  of  the  virtue,  intelligence,  and  wisdom  of 
the  people.  He  is  in  favor  of  elevating,  cherishing, 
and  increasing  all  the  institutions  of  the  government, 
and  of  a  vigorous  and  energetic  administration  of 
it.  From  his  rapidity  of  thought,  he  is  often  wrong 
in  his  conclusions,  and  his  theories  are  sometimes 
wild,  extravagant,  and  impractical.  He  has  always 
claimed  to  be,  and  is,  of  the  Democratic  party,  but 
of  a  very  different  class  from  that  of  Crawford ;  more 
like  Adams,  and  his  schemes  are  sometimes  de- 
nounced by  his  party  as  ultra-fanatical."  * 

Another  contemporary,  writing  prior  to  1824, 
declared:  "He  wants,  I  think,  consistency  and  per- 
severance of  mind,  and  seems  incapable  of  long- 
continued  and  patient  investigation.  What  he  does 
not  see  at  the  first  examination,  he  seldom  takes 
pains  to  search  for ;  but  still  the  lightning  glance  of 
his  mind,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  he  analyzes, 
never  fail  to  furnish  him  with  all  that  may  be  nec- 
essary for  his  immediate  purposes.  In  his  legisla- 
tive career,  which,  though  short,  was  uncommonly 
luminous,  his  love  of  novelty,  and  his  apparent 
solicitude  to  astonish  were  so  great,  that  he  has 
occasionally  been   known   to   go   beyond   even  the 

•Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  Proceedings,  XIX.,  37  (1881-1882). 


1824]  PARTY   POLITICS     '  185 

dreams  of  political  visionaries,  and  to  propose 
schemes  which  were  in  their  nature  impracticable 
or  injurious,  and  which  he  seemed  to  offer  merely 
for  the  purpose  of  displaying  the  affluence  of  his 
mind,  and  the  fertility  of  his  ingenuity."  *  "Cal- 
houn," said  William  Wirt,  in  1824,  "advised  me  the 
other  day  to  study  less  and  trust  more  to  genius; 
and  I  believe  the  advice  is  sound.  He  has  certainly 
practised  on  his  own  precepts,  and  has  become, 
justly,  a  distinguished  man.  It  may  do  very  well 
in  politics,  where  a  proposition  has  only  to  be  com- 
pared with  general  principles  with  which  the  poli- 
tician is  familiar."  ^ 

At  the  beginning  of  the  campaign,  Calhoun  was 
the  confidant  and  friend  of  Adams,  apparently  con- 
sidering the  alternative  of  throwing  his  influence  in 
the  latter's  favor,  if  it  proved  impossible  to  realize 
his  own  aspirations. 

From  beyond  the  Alleghanies  came  two  candi- 
dates who  personified  the  forces  of  their  section. 
We  can  see  the  very  essence  of  the  west  in  Henry 
Clay  and  Andrew  Jackson.  Clay  was  a  Kentuckian, 
with  the  characteristics  of  his  state ;  but,  in  a  larger 
sense,  he  represented  the  stream  of  migration  which 
had  occupied  the  Ohio  Valley  during  the  preceding 
half-century.     This  society  was   one  which,  in  its 

'  Quoted  by  Hodgson,  Letters  from  North  Ant.,  I.,  81. 

^  Kennedy,  William  Wirt,  II.,  143;  other  views  of  Calhoun  in 
MacDonald,  Jacksonian  Democracy ,  chaps,  v.,  ix.;  TLavt,  Slavery 
and  Abolition,  chap.  xix. ;  Garrison,  Westward  Extension  {Am. 
Nation,  XV.,  XVI.,  XVII.). 


i86  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1812 

composition,  embraced  elements  of  the  middle  re- 
gion as  well  as  of  the  south.  It  tended  towards  free- 
dom, but  had  slaves  in  its  midst,  and  had  been 
accustomed,  through  experience,  to  adjust  relations 
between  slavery  and  free  labor  by  a  system  of  com- 
promise. Economically,  it  was  in  need  of  internal 
improvements  and  the  development  of  manufactures 
to  afford  a  home  market.  It  had  the  ideal  of  Amer- 
ican expansion,  and  in  earlier  days  vehemently 
demanded  the  control  of  the  Mississippi  and  the 
expulsion  of  the  Spaniard  from  the  coasts  of  the 
Gulf.  In  the  War  of  181 2  it  sent  its  sons  to  destroy 
English  influence  about  the  Great  Lakes  and  had 
been  ambitious  to  conquer  Canada. 

It  is  an  evidence  of  the  rapidity  with  which  the 
west  stamped  itself  upon  its  colonists,  that  although 
Clay  was  born,  and  bred  to  the  law,  in  Virginia,  he 
soon  became  the  mouth-piece  of  these  western  forces. 
In  his  personality,  also,  he  reflected  many  of  the 
traits  of  this  region.  Kentucky,  ardent  in  its  spirit, 
not  ashamed  of  a  strain  of  sporting  blood,  fond  of 
the  horse-race,  partial  to  its  whiskey,  ready  to 
"bluff"  in  politics  as  in  poker,  but  sensitive  to 
honor,  was  the  true  home  of  Henry  Clay.  To  a 
Puritan  like  John  Quincy  Adams,  Clay  was,  "in 
politics,  as  in  private  life,  essentially  a  gamester."  * 
But  if  the  Puritan  mind  did  not  approve  of  Henry 
Clay,  multitudes  of  his  fellow-countrymen  in  other 
sections  did.     There  was  a  charm  about  him  that 

'  Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  59. 


1824J  PARTY   POLITICS  187 

fastened  men  to  him.  He  was  "  Harry  of  the  West," 
an  impetuous,  wilful,  high-spirited,  daring,  jealous, 
but,  withal,  a  lovable  man.  He  had  the  qualities  of 
leadership;  was  ambitious,  impulsive,  often  guided 
by  his  intuitions  and  his  sensibilities,  but,  at  the 
same  time,  an  adroit  and  bold  champion  of  con- 
structive legislation.  He  knew,  too,  the  time  for 
compromise  and  for  concession.  Perhaps  he  knew 
it  too  well;  for,  although  no  statesman  of  this  era 
possessed  more  courageous  initiative  and  construct- 
ive power,  his  tact  and  his  powers  of  management 
were  such  that  his  place  in  history  is  quite  as  much 
that  of  the  "great  compromiser"  as  it  is  that  of  the 
author  of  the  "American  system." 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Clay  made  the 
speakership  one  of  the  important  American  institu- 
tio»s.  He  was  the  master  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, shaping  its  measures  by  the  appointment 
of  his  committees  and  his  parliamentary  manage- 
ment.* By  the  period  of  our  survey,  with  the  pow- 
er of  this  office  behind  him.  Clay  had  fashioned  a 
set  of  American  political  issues  reflective  of  western 
and  middle-state  ideas,  and  had  made  himself  a 
formidable  rival  in  the  presidential  struggle.  He 
had  caught  the  self-confidence,  the  continental  aspi- 
rations, the  dash  and  impetuosity  of  the  west.  But 
he  was  also,  as  a  writer  of  the  time  declared,  "able 
to  captivate  high  and  low,  Vhomme  du  salon  and  the 
'squatter'  in  the  Western  wilderness."     He  was  a 

•  FoUett,  Speaker  of  the  House,  §§  41-46, 


i88  RISE   OF  THE   NEW   WEST  [1767 

mediator   between   east   and  west,  between    north 
and  south — the  "great  conciHator."  ^ 

If  Henry  Clay  was  one  of  the  favorites  of  the  west, 
Andrew  Jackson  was  the  west  itself.  While  Clay 
was  able  to  voice,  with  statesman-like  ability,  the 
demand  for  economic  legislation  to  promote  her 
interests,  and  while  he  exercised  an  extraordinary 
fascination  by  his  personal  magnetism  and  his  elo- 
quence, he  never  became  the  hero  of  the  great  masses 
of  the  west ;  he  appealed  rather  to  the  more  intel- 
ligent —  to  the  men  of  business  and  of  property. 
Andrew  Jackson  was  the  very  personification  of  the 
contentious,  nationalistic  democracy  of  the  interior. 
He  was  born,  in  1767,  of  Scotch-Irish  parents,  who 
had  settled  near  the  boundary-line  between  North 
and  South  Carolina,  not  far  from  the  similar  settle- 
ments from  which,  within  a  few  years  of  Jackson's 
birth,  Daniel  Boone  and  Robertson  went  forth  to  be 
the  founders  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  In  1788, 
with  a  caravan  of  emigrants,  Jackson  crossed  the 
Alleghanies  to  Nashville,  Tennessee,  then  an  out- 
post of  settlement  still  exposed  to  the  incursions  of 
Indians.  During  the  first  seven  or  eight  years  of 
his  residence  he  was  public  prosecutor — an  office 
that  called  for  nerve  and  decision,  rather  than  legal 
acumen,  in  that  turbulent  country. 


•  Grund,  Aristocracy  in  America,  II.,  213.  For  other  views  of 
Clay,  of.  Babcock,  Ant.  Nationality,  chap.  xii. ;  MacDonald,  Jack- 
sonian  Democracy,  chap.  xt. ;  Garrison,  Westward  Extension,  chap, 
iii.  {Am.  Nation,  XIII.,  XV.,  XVII.). 


1796]  PARTY   POLITICS  189 

The  appearance  of  this  frontiersman  on  the  floor 
of  Congress  was  an  omen  full  of  significance.  He 
reached  Philadelphia  at  the  close  of  Washington's 
administration,  having  ridden  on  horseback  nearly 
eight  hundred  miles  to  his  destination.  Gallatin 
(himself  a  western  Pennsylvanian)  afterwards  graph- 
ically described  Jackson,  as  he  entered  the  halls  of 
Congress,  as  "a  tall,  lank,  uncouth-looking  person- 
age, with  long  locks  of  hair  hanging  over  his  face, 
and  a  cue  down  his  back  tied  in  an  eel-skin;  his 
dress  singular,  his  manners  and  deportment  those 
of  a  rough  backwoodsman."*  Jefferson  afterwards 
testified  to  Webster:  "His  passions  are  terrible. 
When  I  was  President  of  the  Senate,  he  was  a 
Senator,  and  he  could  never  speak,  on  account  of 
the  rashness  of  his  feelings.  I  have  seen  him  at- 
tempt it  repeatedly,  and  as  often  choke  with  rage,"  ^ 
At  length  the  frontier,  in  the  person  of  its  leader, 
had  found  a  place  in  the  government.  This  six-foot 
backwoodsman,  angular,  lantern- jawed,  and  thin, 
with  blue  eyes  that  blazed  on  occasion ;  this  choleric, 
impetuous,  Scotch-Irish  leader  of  men;  this  expert 
duellist  and  ready  fighter;  this  embodiment  of  the 
contentious,  vehement,  personal  west,  was  in  politics 
to  stay.' 

In  the  War  of  181 2,  by  the  defeat  of  the  Indians 

'  Hildreth,  United  States,  iv.,  692. 

^  Webster,  Writings  (National  ed.),  XVII.,  371. 

^  For  other  appreciations,  see  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality, 
chap.xvii.;  M.SicDonaXd,  Jacksoman  Democracy,  chaps,  ii.,  xviii. 
{Am.  Nation,  XIII.,  XV.). 


I90  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1812 

of  the  Gulf  plains,  he  made  himself  the  conqueror  of 
a  new  province  for  western  settlement,  and  when  he 
led  his  frontier  riflemen  to  the  victory  of  New  Or- 
leans he  became  the  national  hero,  the  self-made 
man,  the  incarnation  of  the  popular  ideal  of  democ- 
racy. 

The  very  rashness  and  arbitrariness  which  his 
Seminole  campaign  displayed  appealed  to  the  west, 
for  he  went  to  his  object  with  the  relentless  direct- 
ness of  a  frontiersman.  This  episode  gave  to  Adams 
the  opportunity  to  write  his  masterly  state  paper 
defending  the  actions  of  the  general.  But  Henry 
Clay,  seeing,  perhaps,  in  the  rising  star  of  the  fron- 
tier military  hero  a  baneful  omen  to  his  own  career, 
and  hoping  to  break  the  administration  forces  by 
holding  the  government  responsible  for  Jackson's 
actions,  led  an  assault  upon  him  in  the  Seminole 
debates  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives.* Leaving  Tennessee  when  he  heard  of  the 
attack  which  was  meditated  against  him,  the  general 
rushed  (181 9)  to  this  new  field  of  battle,  and  had 
the  satisfaction  of  winning  what  he  regarded  as  "  the 
greatest  victory  he  ever  obtained" — a  triumph  on 
every  count  of  Clay's  indictment.  This  contest 
Jackson  considered  "  the  Touchstone  of  the  election 
of  the  next  president."^  From  this  time  the  per- 
sonality of  the  "  Old  Hero"  was  as  weighty  a  factor 

»  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  (Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap.  xvii. 
^N.  Y.  Publ.  Library,  Bulletin,  IV.,  160,  161;  Parton,  Jack- 
son, II.,  chap.  xl. 


1824]  PARTY   POLITICS  191 

in  American  politics  as  the  tariff  or  internal  im- 
provements. 

He  had  now  outgrown  the  uncouthness  of  his 
earlier  days  and  had  become  stately  and  dignified 
in  his  manner.  Around  this  unique  personality  there 
began  to  gather  all  those  democratic  forces  which  we 
have  noted  as  characteristic  of  the  interior  of  the 
country,  reinforced  by  the  democracy  of  the  cities, 
growing  into  self -consciousness  and  power.  A  new 
force  was  coming  into  American  life.  This  fiery 
Tennesseean  was  becoming  the  political  idol  of  a 
popular  movement  which  swept  across  all  sections, 
with  but  slight  regard  to  their  separate  economic 
interests.  The  rude,  strong,  turbulent  democracy 
of  the  west  and  of  the  country  found  in  him  its 
natural  leader. 

All  these  candidates  and  the  dominant  element  in 
every  section  professed  the  doctrines  of  republican- 
ism ;  but  what  were  the  orthodox  tenets  of  republi- 
canism at  the  end  of  the  rule  of  the  Virginia  dynasty  ? 
To  this  question  different  candidates  and  different 
sections  gave  conflicting  answers.  Out  of  their  dif- 
ferences there  was  already  the  beginning  of  a  new 
division  of  parties. 

The  progress  of  events  gave  ample  opportunity 
for  collision  between  the  various  factions.  The 
crisis  of  181 9  and  the  depression  of  the  succeeding 
years  worked,  on  the  whole,  in  the  interests  of  Jack- 
son, inclining  the  common  people  to  demand  a  leader 
and  a  new  dispensation.     Not,  perhaps,  without  a 

VOL.    XIV. 14 


192  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1819 

malicious  joy  did  John  Quincy  Adams  write  in  his  di- 
ary at  that  time  that  "  Crawford  has  labors  and  perils 
enough  before  him  in  the  management  of  the  finances 
for  the  three  succeeding  years."  *  From  the  nego- 
tiation of  the  Florida  treaty  in  181 9,  and  especially 
from  the  relinquishment  by  Spain  of  her  claims  to 
the  Pacific  coast  north  of  the  forty-second  parallel, 
the  secretary  of  state  expected  to  reap  a  harvest  of 
political  advantage.^  But  Clay,  as  well  as  Benton 
and  the  west  in  general,  balked  his  hopes  by  de- 
nouncing the  treaty  as  an  abandonment  of  American 
rights;  and,  although  Adams  won  friends  in  the 
south  by  the  acquisition  of  Florida,  Spain's  delay  of 
two  years  in  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  so  far 
neutralized  the  credit  that  the  treaty  was,  after  all, 
but  a  feast  of  Tantalus.  In  these  intervening  years, 
when  the  United  States  was  several  times  on  the 
verge  of  forcibly  occupying  Florida,  the  possibility 
of  a  war  with  Spain,  into  which  European  powers 
might  be  drawn,  increased  the  importance  of  Gen- 
eral Jackson  as  a  figure  in  the  eyes  of  the  public. 

Next  the  Missouri  controversy,  like  "a  flaming 
sword,"  ^  cut  in  every  direction  and  affected  the 
future  of  all  the  presidential  candidates.  The  hope 
of  Crawford  to  reap  the  reward  of  his  renunciation 
in  1816  was  based,  not  only  upon  his  moderation  in 
his  earlier  career,  which  had  brought  him  friends 

'  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  391. 

^  Ibid.,  IV.,  238,  273,  451,  v.,  53,  109,  290;  Monroe,  Writings, 
VI.,  127.  2  Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  91. 


i82o]  PARTY   POLITICS  193 

among  the  Federalists,  but  also  upon  the  prospect 
of  attracting  a  following  in  Pennsylvania,  with 
the  aid  of  the  influence  of  Gallatin,  and  in  New 
York  as  the  regular  candidate  of  the  party.  These 
hopes  of  northern  support  demanded  that  Crawford 
should  trim  his  sails  with  care,  attacking  the  policies 
of  his  rivals  rather  than  framing  issues  of  his  own. 
But  for  a  time  the  Missouri  controversy  alienated 
both  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  from  the  south, 
and  it  brought  about  a  bitterness  of  feeling  fatal  to 
his  success  in  those  two  states.  To  Clay,  too,  the 
slavery  struggle  brought  embarrassments,  for  his 
attitude  as  a  compromiser  failed  to  strengthen  him 
in  the  south,  while  it  diminished  his  following  in 
the  north.  Calhoun  suffered  from  the  same  diffi- 
culty, although  his  position  in  the  cabinet  enabled 
him  to  keep  in  the  background  in  this  heated  con- 
test. Jackson  stood  in  a  different  situation.  At 
the  time  he  was  remote  from  the  controversy,  hav- 
ing his  own  troubles  as  governor  of  Florida,  and,  as 
a  slave-holding  planter  he  was  not  suspected  by  the 
south,  while  at  the  same  time  his  popularity  as  the 
representative  of  the  new  democracy  was  stead- 
ily winning  him  friends  in  the  antislavery  state  of 
Pennsylvania. 

To  Adams  all  the  agitation  was  a  distinct  gain, 
since  it  broke  the  concert  between  Virginia  and  New 
York  and  increased  his  chances  as  the  only  impor- 
tant northern  candidate.  He  saw — none  more  clear- 
ly— the  possibility  of  this  issue  as  a  basis  for  a  new 


194  RISE   OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1821 

party  organization,*  but  he  saw  also  that  it  men- 
aced a  dissolution  of  the  Union. ^  He  was  not  dis- 
posed to  alienate  the  south,  and  he  contented  him- 
self with  confiding  his  denunciation  of  slavery  to  the 
secret  pages  of  his  diary,  while  publicly  he  took  his 
stand  on  the  doctrine  that  the  proposed  restriction 
upon  Missouri  was  against  the  Constitution.^  As 
early  as  1821  he  recognized  that  the  number  of 
candidates  in  the  field  made  it  almost  certain  that 
the  election  would  be  decided  by  the  vote  of  states 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  where  the  vote  of 
the  single  member  from  Illinois  would  count  as  much 
as  that  of  the  whole  delegation  of  New  York  or  Penn- 
sylvania. What  Adams  needed,  therefore,  was  to 
combine  New  England  in  his  support,  obtain,  if  pos- 
sible, a  majority  in  New  York,  and  add  the  votes  of 
a  sufficient  number  of  smaller  states  to  win  the 
election. 

The  seventeenth  Congress,  which  met  in  Decem- 
ber, 1821,  and  lasted  until  the  spring  of  1823,  was 
one  of  the  most  ineffective  legislative  bodies  in  the 
country's  history.  Henry  Clay  had  returned  to 
Kentucky  to  resume  the  practice  of  the  law  as  a 
means  of  restoring  his  financial  fortunes,  and  the 
importance  of  his  leadership  was  emphasized  by  his 
absence.  Without  mastery,  and  in  the  absence  of 
party  discipline,  Congress  degenerated  into  a  mere 
arena  for  the  conflicts  of  rival  personal  factions,  each 

^  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  529.  ^  Ibid.,W.,  12,  13,  53. 

^Ibid.,  IV.,  529. 


i82i]  PARTY   POLITICS  i95 

anxious  to  destroy  the  reputation  of  the  candidate 
favored  by  the  other. 

In  December,    1821,   Barbour,   of  Virginia,   was 
chosen  speaker,  by  a  close  vote,  over  Taylor,  the 
favorite  of  Adams,  thus  transferring  the  control  of 
the   congressional  committees   again  to  the  south, 
aided  by  its  New  York  allies.     The  advantage  to 
Crawford  arising  from  this  election  was  partly  neu- 
tralized by  the  fact  that  in  this  year  his  partisans  in 
Georgia  were  defeated  by  the  choice  of  his  bitterest 
enemy  for  the  governorship.     It  may  have  been  this 
circumstance  wbich  aroused  the  hope  of  Crawford's 
southern  rivals  and  led  to  the  calling  of  a  legislative 
caucus  in  South  Carolina,  which,  on  December  18, 
1 82 1,  by  a  close  vote,  nominated  William  Lowndes 
instead  of  Calhoun  for  the  presidency.     Many  of 
Calhoun's  partisans  refused  to  attend  this  caucus, 
and  the  vote  was  a  close  one  (57  to  53).*     Lowndes 
was  a  wealthy  South  Carolina  planter,  judicious  and 
dispassionate,  with  a  reputation  for  fair-mindedness 
and  wisdom  that  gained  him  the  respect  of  his  foes 
as  well  as  his  friends.     According  to  tradition.  Clay 
once  declared  that  among  the  many  men  he  had 
known  he  found  it  difficult  to  decide  who  was  the 
greatest,  but  added,  "  I  think  the  wisest  man  I  ever 
knew  was  William  Lowndes."  ""     His  death,  in  less 
than  a  year,  removed  from  the  presidential  contest 


1 


Ravenel,  William  Lowndes,  chap,  x.;  Adams,  Memoirs,  V., 
468,  470;  National  Intelligencer,  January  19,  1822. 
^  Ravenel,  William  Lowndes,  238. 


196  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1821 

an  important  figure,  and  from  the  south  one  of  the 
most  gifted  of  her  sons. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  nomination  of  Lowndes 
reached  Washington,  a  delegation  of  members  of 
Congress,  from  various  sections,  secured  Calhoun's 
consent  to  avow  his  candidacy.  His  career  as  a 
tariff  man  and  as  a  friend  of  internal  improvements 
had  won  him  northern  supporters,  especially  in 
Pennsylvania,  although,  as  South  Carolina's  action 
showed,  he  was  not  able  to  control  his  state.  The 
announcement  of  Calhoun's  candidacy  turned  against 
him  all  the  batteries  of  his  rivals.  Pleading  the 
depleted  condition  of  the  treasury,  Crawford's  parti- 
sans in  Congress  attacked  the  measures  of  Calhoun 
as  secretary  of  war.  Retrenchment  in  the  expendi- 
tures for  the  army  was  demanded,  and  finally,  under 
the  leadership  of  Crawford's  friends,  the  Senate 
refused  to  ratify  certain  nominations  of  military 
officers  made  by  the  president  on  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  secretary  of  war,  giving  as  a  reason  that 
they  were  not  in  accordance  with  the  law  for  the 
reduction  of  the  army.  In  the  cabinet  discussion, 
Crawford  openly  supported  this  opposition,  and  his 
relations  with  the  president  became  so  strained  that, 
in  the  spring  of  1822,  reports  were  rife  that  his 
resignation  would  be  demanded.*  Crawford  himself 
wrote  to  Gallatin  that  it  would  not  be  to  his  disad- 
vantage to  be  removed  from  office.^ 

*  Cf.  Adams.  Memoirs,  V.,   525. 
^Gallatin,  Writings,  II.,  241. 


i822]  PARTY   POLITICS  197 

In  the  summer  the  matter  was  brought  to  a 
head  by  a  correspondence  in  which  Monroe  indig- 
nantly intimated  that  Crawford  had  given  counte- 
nance to  the  allegation  that  the  president's  principles 
and  policy  were  not  in  sympathy  with  the  early 
Jeffersonian  system  of  economy  and  state  rights. 
Believing  that  Crawford  was  aiming  at  the  creation 
of  a  new  party  (a  thing  which  distressed  Monroe, 
who  regarded  parties  as  an  evil)/  he  made  it  clear 
that  it  was  the  duty  of  a  cabinet  officer,  when  once 
the  policy  of  the  executive  had  been  determined,  to 
give  that  policy  co-operation  and  support.^  In  his 
reply  Crawford  denied  that  he  had  personally  an- 
tagonized the  measures  of  the  administration ;  ^  but 
he  took  the  ground  that  a  cabinet  officer  should 
not  attempt  to  influence  his  friends  in  Congress 
either  for  or  against  the  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

His  assurances  of  loyalty  satisfied  Monroe  and 
averted  the  breach.  It  is  easy  to  see,  however,  that 
Crawford's  attitude  strengthened  the  feeling  on  the 
part  of  his  rivals  that  he  was  intriguing  against  the 
administration.  They  believed,  whether  he  insti- 
gated his  partisans  to  oppose  measures  favored  by 
the  president  or  was  unable  to  restrain  them,  in 
either  case  he  should  be  forced  into  open  opposi- 

'  Monroe,  Writings,  VI.,  286-291. 

'  Monroe  to  Crawford,  August  22,  1822,  MS.  in  N.  Y.  Pub.  Li- 
brary. 

'  Crawford  to  Monroe,  September  3,  1822,  MS.  in  N.  Y.  Pub. 
Library;  of.  Adams,  Memoirs,  VL,  390. 


198  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1822 

tion.^  The  truth  is  that  the  government  was  so 
divided  within  itself  that  it  was  difficult  to  determine 
with  certainty  what  its  policy  was.  Monroe's  great- 
est weakness  was  revealed  at  this  time  in  his  inability 
to  create  and  insist  upon  a  definite  policy.  The  situ- 
ation was  aggravated  by  the  president's  determina- 
tion to  remain  neutral  between  the  rival  members  of 
his  official  family,  and  by  the  loss  of  influence  which 
he  suffered  through  the  knowledge  that  he  was  soon 
to  lay  down  the  presidential  power. 

Meanwhile,  John  Quincy  Adams  watched  these 
intrigues  with  bitterness  of  soul.  Debarred  by  his 
Puritan  principles  from  the  open  solicitation  of  votes 
which  his  rivals  practised,  he  yet  knew  every  move 
in  the  game  and  gauged  the  political  tendencies  with 
the  astuteness  of  the  politician,  albeit  a  Puritan  poli- 
tician. Nor  did  he  disdain  to  make  such  use  of  his 
position  as  would  win  friends  or  remove  enemies. 
He  proposed  to  Calhoun  a  foreign  mission,  suggest- 
ed the  same  to  Clay,  favored  an  ambassadorship  for 
Clinton,  and  urged  the  appointment  of  Jackson  to 
Mexico.  These  overtures  were  politely  declined  by 
the  candidates,  and  Adams  was  forced  to  fight  for 
the  presidency  against  the  men  whom  he  would  so 
gladly  have  sent  to  honor  their  country  abroad. 

*  Cf.  Poinsett  to  Monroe,  May  10,  1822,  Monroe  MSS.,  in  Li- 
brary of  Cong.;  Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  315,  VI.,  57. 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE 
(1821-1823) 

THE  place  of  slavery  in  the  westward  expansion 
of  the  nation  was  not  the  only  burning  ques- 
tion which  the  American  people  had  to  face  in  the 
presidency  of  Monroe.  Within  a  few  years  after 
that  contest,  the  problem  of  the  independence  of  the 
New  World  and  of  the  destiny  of  the  United  States 
in  the  sisterhood  of  new  American  republics  con- 
fronted the  administration.  Should  the  political 
rivalries  and  wars  of  Europe  to  acquire  territory  be 
excluded  from  the  western  hemisphere?  Should 
the  acquisition  of  new  colonies  by  European  states 
in  the  vast  unsettled  spaces  of  the  two  Americas 
be  terminated  ?  These  weighty  questions  were  put 
to  the  mild  Virginian  statesman ;  history  has  named 
his  answer  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 

From  the  beginning  of  our  national  existence,  the 
United  States  had  been  pushing  back  Europe  from 
her  borders,  and  asserting  neutrality  and  the  right 
to  remain  outside  of  the  political  system  of  the  Old 
World.  Washington's  farewell  address  of  1796,  with 
its  appeal  to  his  fellow-citizens  against  "interweav- 


200  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1790 

ing  our  destiny  with  that  of  any  part  of  Europe," 
sank  deep  into  the  popular  consciousness.  It  did 
not  interfere  with  the  process  by  which,  piece  by 
piece,  the  United  States  added  to  its  domains  frag- 
ments from  the  disintegrating  Spanish  empire;  for 
so  long  as  European  states  held  the  strategic  posi- 
tions on  our  flanks,  as  they  did  in  Washington's  day, 
the  policy  of  separation  from  the  nations  of  the  Old 
World  was  one  difficult  to  maintain ;  and  France  and 
England  watched  the  enlargement  of  the  United 
States  with  jealous  eye.  Each  nation,  in  turn,  con- 
sidered the  plans  of  Miranda,  a  Venezuelan  revo- 
lutionist, for  the  freeing  of  Spanish  America.  In 
1790  the  Nootka  Sound  affair  threatened  to  place 
England  in  possession  of  the  whole  Mississippi  val- 
ley and  to  give  her  the  leadership  in  Spanish  Amer- 
ica.* Two  years  later,  France  urged  England  to  join 
her  in  freeing  the  colonies  of  Spain  in  the  New 
World ;  ^  and  when  Pitt  rejected  these  overtures, 
France  sent  Genet  to  spread  the  fires  of  her  revolu- 
tion in  Louisiana  and  Florida.' 

When  this  design  failed,  France  turned  to  diplo- 
macy, and  between  1795  and  1800  tried  to  persuade 
Spain  to  relinquish  Florida  and  Louisiana  to  her- 
self, as  a  means  of  checking  the  expansion  of  the 
United  States  and  of  rendering  her  subservient  to 

» Turner,  in  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  VII.,  704,  VIII.,  78;  Waring, 
Nootka  Sound  Controversy,  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report,  1904,  p. 
281;  cf.  Bussett,  Federalist  System  (Am.  Nation,  XI.),  chap.  vi. 

^  Sore\,  L'  Europe  et  la  Revolution  Frangaise,  II.,  384,  418, 
III.,  17.  s-pui-ner,  in  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  III.,  650,  X,,  259. 


i8i8]  MONROE    DOCTRINE  201 

France.  The  growing  preponderance  of  France  over 
Spain,  and  the  fear  that  she  would  secure  control  of 
Spanish  America,  led  England  again  in  1798  to  listen 
to  Miranda's  dream  of  freeing  his  countrymen,  and 
to  sound  the  United  States  on  a  plan  for  joint  action 
against  Spain  in  the  New  World. ^  The  elder  Adams 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  these  suggestions,  and  when  at 
last  Napoleon  achieved  the  possession  of  Louisiana, 
it  was  only  to  turn  it  over  to  the  United  States.^ 
Jefferson's  threat  that  the  possession  of  Louisiana 
by  France  would  seal  the  union  between  England 
and  the  United  States  and  "make  the  first  cannon 
which  shall  be  fired  in  Europe  the  signal  for  the  tear- 
ing up  of  any  settlement  she  may  have  made,  and 
for  holding  the  two  continents  of  America  in  seques- 
tration for  the  common  purposes  of  the  united 
British  and  American  nations,"  '  showed  how  un- 
stable must  be  the  American  policy  of  isolation  so 
long  as  Europe  had  a  lodgment  on  our  borders.'* 

The  acquisition  of  Louisiana  by  the  United  States 
was  followed  by  the  annexation  of  West  Flor- 
ida; and  the  Seminole  campaign  frightened  Spain 
into  the  abandonment  of  East  Florida.^  While  the 
United  States  was  thus  crowding  Europe  back  from 

•  Turner,  in  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  X.,  249  et  seq.,  276. 
2  Sloane,  in  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  IV.,  439. 
^Jefferson,  Writings  (Ford's  ed.),  VIII.,  145. 

*  Cf.  Channing,  Jeffersonian  System  {Am.  Nation,  XII.), 
chap.  V. 

^  Babcock,  American  Nationality  {Am..  Nation,  XIII.).  chap. 


202  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1807 

its  borders  and  strengthening  its  leadership  in  the 
New  World,  Spanish  America  was  revolting  from  the 
mother-country.  When  Napoleon  made  himself  mas- 
ter of  Spain  in  1807,  English  merchants,  alarmed 
at  the  prospect  of  losing  the  lucrative  trade  which 
they  had  built  up  in  the  lands  which  Spain  had  so 
long  monopolized,  supported  the  revolutionists  with 
money,  while  various  expeditions  led  by  English 
officers  aided  the  revolt.*  At  first,  failure  met  the 
efforts  of  the  loosely  compacted  provinces,  made 
up  of  sharply  marked  social  classes,  separated  by 
race  antagonisms,  and  untrained  in  self-government. 
Only  in  Buenos  Ayres  (later  the  Argentine  Confed- 
eration), where  representatives  of  the  United  Prov- 
inces of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  declared  their  indepen- 
dence in  1 81 6,  were  the  colonists  able  to  hold  their 
ground. 

A  new  era  in  the  revolt  began,  however,  in  181 7, 
when  General  San  Martin  surprised  the  Spaniards 
by  his  march,  from  a  frontier  province  of  La  Plata, 
over  a  pass  thirteen  thousand  feet  above  the  sea 
across  the  Andes  to  Chili.  In  the  course  of  four 
years,  with  the  co-operation  of  Lord  Cochrane  (who 
relinquished  the  British  service  in  order  to  command 
the  fleet  of  the  insurgents  on  the  Pacific),  he  effected 
the  liberation  of  Chili  and  of  Peru.  Meanwhile,  in 
the  northern  provinces  the  other  great  South  Amer- 
ican revolutionist,    Bolivar,   aided   by  a   legion   of 

*  Paxson,  Independence  of  the  So.  Am.  Republics,  chap,  iix.; 
Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  IV.,  499,  VI.,  508. 


i822]  MONROE   DOCTRINE  203 

Irish  and  English  veterans,  won  the  independence 
of  Venezuela  and  Colombia.  In  July,  1822,  these 
two  successful  generals  met  in  Ecuador;  and  San 
Martin,  yielding  the  leadership  to  the  more  ambi- 
tious Bolivar,  withdrew  from  the  New  World.  By 
this  date,  America  was  clearly  lost  to  the  Latin 
states  of  Europe,  for  Mexico  became  an  independent 
empire  in  182 1,  and  the  next  year  Brazil,  while  it 
chose  for  its  ruler  a  prince  of  the  younger  line  of  the 
royal  house  of  Portugal,  proclaimed  its  independence,* 
Although  the  relations  between  these  revolution- 
ary states  and  England,  both  on  the  military  and 
on  the  commercial  side,  were  much  closer  than  with 
the  United  States,  this  nation  followed  the  course 
of  events  with  keen  interest.  Agents  were  sent,  in 
18 1 7  and  1820,  to  various  South  American  states,  to 
report  upon  the  conditions  there ;  and  the  vessels  of 
the  revolutionary  governments  were  accorded  bel- 
ligerent rights,  and  admitted  to  the  ports  of  the 
United  States.^  The  occupation  of  Amelia  Island 
and  Galveston,  in  18 17,  by  revolutionists,  claiming 
the  protection  of  the  flags  of  Colombia  and  Mexico 
respectively,  gave  opportunity  for  piratical  forays 
upon  commerce,  which  the  United  States  was  unable 
to  tolerate,  and  these  establishments  were  broken 
up  by  the  government.' 

*  Paxson,  Independence  of  the  So.  Am.  Republics,  chap.  i. 
^  Ibid.,  121;  Am.  State  Paps.,  Foreign,  IV.,  217,  818. 
3  McMaster,  United  States,  IV.,  chap,  xxxiv.;  "Reeves,  in  yohns 
Hopkins  Univ.  Studies,  XXXIII. ,  Nos.  9,  10. 


204  RISE   OF  THE   NEW   WEST  [1817 

President  Monroe  seems  to  have  been  inclined  to 
recognize  the  independence  of  these  states  on  the 
earliest  evidence  of  their  ability  to  sustain  it;  but 
the  secretary  of  state,  John  Quincy  Adams,  favored 
a  policy  of  delay.  He  had  slight  confidence  in  the 
turbulent,  untrained  republics  of  Latin- America,  and 
little  patience  with  the  idea  that  their  revolution  had 
anything  in  common  with  that  of  the  United  States. 
At  the  close  of  181 7  he  believed  it  inexpedient  and 
unjust  for  the  United  States  to  favor  their  cause, 
and  he  urged  a  friend  to  publish  inquiries  into  the 
political  morality  and  the  right  of  the  United  States 
to  take  sides  with  a  people  who  trampled  upon  civil 
rights,  disgraced  their  revolution  by  buccaneering 
and  piracy,  and  who  lacked  both  unity  of  cause  and 
of  effort.^  His  own  system  was  based  on  the  theory 
that  the  United  States  should  move  in  harmony 
with  England,  and,  if  possible,  with  the  other  Euro- 
pean powers  in  the  matter  of  recognition ;  ^  and  he 
perceived  that  Spain  would  be  more  likely  to  yield 
Florida  to  the  United  States  if  the  president  did  not 
acknowledge  the  independence  of  her  other  prov- 
inces. 

Henry  Clay  now  came  forward  as  the  advocate  of 
immediate  recognition  of  the  revolutionary  repub- 
lics. In  this  he  was  undoubtedly  swayed  by  a  real 
sympathy  with  the  cause  of  freedom  and  by  the 

*  Letter  to  A.  H.  Everett,  in  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  XI.,  112. 

*  Paxson,  Independence  of  the  So.  Am.  Republics,  149  (citing 
MSS.  in  State  Dept.) 


i8i8]  MONROE    DOCTRINE  205 

natural  instincts  of  a  man  of  the  west,  where  antag- 
onism to  Spain  was  bred  in  the  bone.  But  his 
insistence  upon  immediate  action  was  also  stimu- 
lated by  his  opposition  to  Monroe  and  the  secretary 
of  state.  Clay's  great  speech  on  recognition  was 
made  May  24  and  25,  1818.  His  imagination  kin- 
dled at  the  vastness  of  South  America :  "  The  loftiest 
mountains;  the  most  majestic  rivers  in  the  world; 
the  richest  mines  of  the  precious  metals;  and  the 
choicest  productions  of  the  earth."  "We  behold 
there,"  said  he,  "a  spectacle  still  more  interesting 
and  sublime — the  glorious  spectacle  of  eighteen  mill- 
ions of  people  struggling  to  burst  their  chains  and 
be  free."  He  appealed  to  Congress  to  support  an 
American  system  by  recognizing  these  sister  repub- 
lics, and  argued  that,  both  in  diplomacy  and  in 
commerce  they  would  be  guided  by  an  American 
policy  and  aid  the  United  States  to  free  itself  from 
dependence  on  Europe.  His  motion  was  lost  by  an 
overwhelming  majority,  but  the  speech  made  a  deep 
impression.^ 

In  the  two  years  which  elapsed  between  the  nego- 
tiation and  the  ratification  of  the  Florida  treaty, 
the  president  was  several  times  on  the  point  of 
recommending  the  forcible  occupation  of  Florida, 
but  he  withheld  the  blow,  hoping  that  the  liberal 
Spanish  government  established  under  the  constitu- 
tion of  1820  might  be  brought  to  give  its  consent  to 
the  cession.     The  impetuous  Clay  chafed  under  this 

1  Annals  of  Cong.,  15  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  II.,  1474. 


2o6  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

delay,  and  on  May  10,  1820,  he  broke  forth  in 
another  speech,  in  support  of  a  resolution  declaring 
the  expediency  of  sending  ministers  to  the  South 
American  states.  Charging  the  administration,  and 
especially  John  Quincy  Adams,  with  subserviency 
to  Great  Britain,  he  demanded  that  the  United 
States  should  become  the  centre  of  a  system  against 
the  despotism  of  the  Old  World  and  should  act  on 
its  own  responsibility.  "  We  look  too  much  abroad," 
said  he.  "  Let  us  break  these  commercial  and  politi- 
cal fetters;  let  us  no  longer  watch  the  nod  of  any 
European  politician;  let  us  become  real  and  true 
Americans,  and  place  ourselves  at  the  head  of  the 
American  system."  * 

Clay  was  steadily  gaining  support  in  his  efforts  to 
force  the  hands  of  the  administration:  his  resolu- 
tions won  by  a  fair  majority,  and  again,  in  February, 
1 82 1,  he  secured  the  almost  unanimous  assent  of  the 
House  to  a  resolution  of  sympathy  with  South  Amer- 
ica. Another  resolution,  expressing  the  readiness  of 
that  body  to  support  the  president  whenever  he 
should  think  it  expedient  to  recognize  the  republics, 
passed  by  a  vote  of  86  to  68,  and  the  triumphant 
Clay  was  placed  at  the  head  of  a  committee  to  wait 
on  the  president  with  this  resolution.^ 

Although  the  victory  was  without  immediate  effect 
on  the  administration,  which  refused    to  act  while 

^Annals  of  Cong.,  16  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  II.,  2727. 
"^  Ibid.,  2229,  and  2  Sess.,  1081,  1091;  Adams,  Memoirs,  V., 
268. 


i822]  MONROE   DOCTRINE  207 

the  Florida  treaty  was  still  unratified,  Adams  per- 
ceived that  the  popular  current  was  growing  too 
strong  to  be  much  longer  stemmed;  the  charge  of 
dependence  upon  England  was  one  not  easy  to  be 
borne,  and  Clay's  vision  of  an  independent  Ameri- 
can system  guided  by  the  United  States  had  its 
influence  on  his  mind.  Five  months  after  Clay's 
speech,  in  1820,  extolling  such  a  system,  Adams  set 
forth  similar  general  ideas  in  a  discussion  between 
himself  and  the  British  minister  over  the  regulation 
of  the  slave-trade.'  By  1822,  Florida  was  in  our 
possession.  The  success  of  the  arms  of  the  revolu- 
tionists was  unmistakable;  several  governments  of 
sufficient  stability  to  warrant  recognition  had  been 
erected ;  and  it  was  patent  to  the  world  that  Spain 
had  lost  her  colonies.  Acting  on  these  considera- 
tions, Monroe  sent  a  message  to  Congress,  March  8, 
1822,  announcing  that  the  time  for  recognition  had 
come,  and  asking  for  appropriations  for  ministers  to 
South  America.^ 

In  the  mean  time,  the  secretary  of  state  was  con- 
fronted with  important  diplomatic  questions  which 
complicated  the  South  American  problem.  As 
Spanish  America  broke  away  from  the  mother-coun- 
try, its  possessions  in  North  America  on  the  Pacific 
were  exposed  to  seizure  by  the  rival  powers.  In 
182 1,  when  Stratford  Canning,  the  British  minister 
to  the  United  States,  protested  against  a  motion, 

*  Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  182. 

^  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers,  II.,  116 

VOL.    XIV. — 15 


2o8  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1821 

in  the  House  of  Representatives,  that  the  United 
States  should  form  an  estabHshment  on  the  Colum- 
bia, Adams  challenged  any  claim  of  England  to  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific.  "  I  do  not  know,''  said  he, 
"what  you  claim  nor  what  you  do  not  claim.  You 
claim  India  ;  you  claim  Africa ;  you  claim — " 
"Perhaps,"  said  Canning,  "a  piece  of  the  moon." 
"No,"  said  Adams,  "I  have  not  heard  that  you 
claim  exclusively  any  part  of  the  moon;  but  there 
is  not  a  spot  on  this  habitable  globe  that  I  could 
affirm  you  do  not  claim;  and  there  is  none  which 
you  may  not  claim  with  as  much  color  of  right  as 
you  can  have  to  Columbia  River  or  its  mouth."  ^ 

The  time  had  arrived  when  Adams's  familiarity 
with  foreign  diplomacy,  his  belief  that  a  new  nation 
must  assert  its  rights  with  vigor  if  it  expected  to 
maintain  them,  his  very  testiness  and  irascibility, 
his  "bull-dog  fighting  qualities  " — in  short,  the  char- 
acteristics that  were  sources  of  weakness  to  him  in 
domestic  politics — proved  to  be  elements  of  strength 
in  his  conduct  of  foreign  relations.  The  individual- 
ism, the  uncompromising  nature,  the  aggressiveness, 
and  the  natural  love  of  expansion,  which  were  traits 
of  John  Quincy  Adams,  became  of  highest  service 
to  his  country  in  the  diplomatic  relations  of  the  next 
few  years. 

Hardly  a  year  elapsed  after  this  defiance  to  Eng- 
land when  Adams  met  the  claims  of  Russia  likewise 
with  a   similar  challenge.     On  September  4,  1821, 

*  Adams,  Memoirs,  Y.,  252. 


i824]  MONROE    DOCTRINE  209 

the  Russian  czar  issued  a  ukase  announcing  the 
claim  of  Russia  on  the  Pacific  coast  south  of  the 
fifty-first  degree,  and  interdicting  to  the  commercial 
vessels  of  other  powers  the  approach  on  the  high  seas 
within  one  hundred  Italian  miles  of  this  claim.* 
This  assertion  of  Russian  monopoly,  which  would, 
in  effect,  have  closed  Bering  Sea,  met  with  peremp- 
tory refusal  by  Adams,  and  on  July  17,  1823,  having 
in  mind  Russia's  posts  in  California,  he  informed  the 
minister.  Baron  Tuyl,  "that  we  should  contest  the 
right  of  Russia  to  any  territorial  establishment  on 
this  continent,  and  that  we  should  assume  distinctly 
the  principle  that  the  American  continents  are  no 
longer  subjects  for  any  new  European  colonial  estab- 
lishments." ^  After  negotiations,  Russia  concluded 
the  treaty  of  April  17,  1824,  by  which  she  agreed  to 
form  no  establishments  on  the  northwest  coast  south 
of  latitude  54°  40',  and  the  United  States  recipro- 
cally agreed  to  make  no  establishments  north  of  that 
line.  At  the  same  time  Russia  abandoned  her  ex- 
treme claim  of  maritime  jurisdiction. 

While  the  Russian  claims  were  under  considera- 
tion, the  question  of  the  future  of  Cuba  was  also 
giving  great  concern.  The  Pearl  of  the  Antilles  re- 
mained in  the  possession  of  Spain  when  she  lost  her 
main-land  colonies.  By  its  position,  commanding 
both  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Caribbean  Sea,  it 
was  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  United  States 

*  U.  S.  Foreign  Relations  (1890),  439. 
^  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  163. 


2IO  RISE   OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1822 

as  well  as  to  the  West  Indian  powers,  England  and 
France.  From  a  party  in  Cuba  itself,  in  September, 
1822,  advances  were  made  to  the  United  States  for 
annexation,  and  Monroe  sent  an  agent  to  investi- 
gate, meanwhile  refraining  from  encouraging  the 
movement.* 

George  Canning,  who  became  premier  of  England 
in  September,  1822,  was  convinced  that  no  questions 
relating  to  continental  Europe  could  be  more  imme- 
diately and  vitally  important  to  Great  Britain  than 
those  which  related  to  America.^  Alarmed  lest  the 
United  States  should  occupy  Cuba,  Canning,  in  a 
memorandum  to  the  cabinet  in  November,  ques- 
tioned whether  any  blow  that  could  be  struck  by 
any  foreign  power  in  any  part  of  the  world  would 
more  affect  the  interests  of  England.^  He  content- 
ed himself,  however,  with  sending  a  naval  force  to 
the  waters  of  Cuba  and  Puerto  Rico,  with  the  double 
purpose  of  checking  American  aggressions  and  pro- 
tecting English  commerce.  This  action  created  sus- 
picion on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  and  Adams 
issued  instructions  (April  28,  1823)  to  the  American 
minister  at  Madrid,  declaring  that,  within  a  half- 
century,  the  annexation  of  Cuba  to  the  United  States 
would  be  indispensable  to  the  continuance  and  in- 
tegrity of  the  Union  itself.     The  laws  of  political 

'Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  69,   72. 

'  Stapleton,  Official  Corresp.  of  George  Canning,  I.,  48. 

^  Ibid.,  52;  Royal  Hist.  Soc,  Transactions  (new  series),  XVIII. , 


i822]  MONROE    DOCTRINE  2H 

gravitation  would,  in  his  opinion,  ultimately  bring 
Cuba  to  this  country,  if,  in  the  mean  time,  it  were  not 
acquired  by  some  other  power.  Adams's  immediate 
policy,  therefore,  favored  the  retention  of  Cuba  and 
Puerto  Rico  by  Spain,  but  he  refused  to  commit  the 
United  States  to  a  guarantee  of  the  independence 
of  Cuba  against  all  the  world  except  that  power. ^ 

The  mutual  jealousies  of  the  nations  with  respect 
to  the  destiny  of  Cuba  became,  at  this  time,  en- 
tangled with  the  greater  question  of  the  interven- 
tion of  the  Holy  Alliance  in  the  New  World.  At  the 
Congress  of  Verona,  in  November,  1822,  Austria, 
France,  Russia,  and  Prussia  signed  a  revision  of 
the  treaty  of  the  Holy  Alliance,^  which  had  for  its 
objects  the  promotion  of  the  doctrine  of  legitimacy 
in  support  of  the  divine  right  of  rulers,  and  the  doc- 
trine of  intervention,  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  to 
their  thrones  those  monarchs  who  had  been  deposed 
by  popular  uprisings,  and  of  rehabilitating  those 
who  had  been  limited  by  written  constitutions.  At 
Verona,  the  allies  agreed  to  use  their  efforts  to  put 
an  end  to  the  system  of  representative  government 
in  Europe,  and  to  prevent  its  further  introduction. 
Having  already  suppressed  uprisings  in  Naples  and 
Piedmont,  the  Alliance  empowered  France  to  send 
troops  into  the   Spanish  peninsula  to  restore  the 

1  Wharton,  Digest  of  Am.  Int.  Law,  I.,  361-366;  Latane,  Dip- 
lomatic Relations  with  Lot.  Am-.,  chap.  iii. 

2  Snow,  Treaties  and  Topics;  Seignobos,  Pol.  Hist,  of  Europe 
since  18 14,  762. 


212  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1823 

authority  of  the  king  of  Spain  and  to  put  down  the 
revolutionary  constitution  of  1820.  Chateaubriand, 
the  French  representative,  desired  the  congress  to 
go  further  and  intervene  in  Spanish  America,  but 
this  question  was  postponed. 

Alarmed  by  the  prospect  of  French  power  in  Spain 
and  by  the  proposed  extension  of  the  system  of  the 
allies  to  the  New  World,  Canning  protested  against 
the  doctrine  of  intervention,  and  determined  that, 
if  France  was  to  become  the  mistress  of  Spain,  she 
should  at  least  not  control  the  old  Spanish  empire. 
In  the  spring  of  1823  he  made  an  unsuccessful  effort 
to  secure  a  pledge  from  France  not  to  acquire  any 
Spanish  -  American  possessions,  either  by  conquest 
or  by  cession  from  Spain.  But  the  French  govern- 
ment maintained  its  reserve,  even  after  England 
disclaimed  for  herself  the  intention  of  acquiring 
Spanish-American  territory.* 

Having  broken  with  the  concert  of  the  European 
powers,  it  was  natural  that  England  should  turn  to 
the  United  States,  and  it  is  very  likely  that  the  next 
step  of  Canning  was  influenced  by  the  despatches  of 
the  British  minister  to  the  United  States,  who  re- 
ported a  conversation  with  Adams,  in  June,  1823,  in 
which  the  secretary  strongly  set  forth  his  belief  that, 
in  view  of  the  virtual  dissolution  of  the  European 
alliance,  England  and  the  United  States  had  much 
in  common  in  their  policy.  "With  respect  to  the 
vast  continent  of  the  West,"  said  he,  "the  United 

•  Stapleton,  Political  Life  of  Canning,  I.,  19. 


i823l  MONROE    DOCTRINE  213 

States  must  necessarily  take  a  warm  and  decided 
interest  in  whatever  determined  the  fate  or  affected 
the  welfare  of  its  component  members."  But  he 
disclaimed  any  wish  on  the  part  of  this  country  to 
obtain  exclusive  advantages  there.  He  urged  that 
England  ought  to  recognize  the  independence  of  the 
revolted  provinces,  and  he  deprecated  the  conquest 
or  cession  of  any  part  of  them.* 

The  first  impression  of  the  British  minister,  on 
hearing  Adams's  emphasis  on  the  community  of 
interests  between  the  two  nations,  was  that  the 
secretary  was  suggesting  an  alliance ;  and  it  may  well 
have  been  that  Canning  was  encouraged  by  the 
American  attitude  to  make  overtures  to  Rush,  the 
American  minister,  shortly  after  these  despatches 
must  have  reached  him.  On  August  16,  1823,  and 
three  times  thereafter.  Canning  proposed  a  joint 
declaration  by  England  and  the  United  States 
against  any  project  by  a  European  power  of  "a 
forcible  enterprise  for  reducing  the  colonies  to  sub- 
jugation, on  the  behalf  or  in  the  name  of  Spain ;  or 
which  meditates  the  acquisition  of  any  part  of  them 
to  itself,  by  cession  or  by  conquest."  ^  Canning  was 
willing  to  make  public  announcement  that  the  re- 
covery of  the  colonies  by  Spain  was  hopeless;  that 
the  matter  of  recognition  was  only  a  question  of 

1  Stratford  Canning  to  George  Canning,  June  6,  1823,  MSS. 
Foreign  Office,  America,  CLXXVI.;  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  151; 
cf.  Reddaway,  Monroe  Doctrine,  83. 

^Stapleton,  Political  Life  of  Canning,  II.,  24;  W.  C.  Ford,  in 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings  (2d  series),  XV.,  415. 


214  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1823 

time;  and  that  Great  Britain  did  not  aim  at  the 
possession  of  any  portion  of  them,  but  that  it  "  could 
not  see  any  part  of  them  transferred  to  any  other 
power  with  indifference."  These  professions  Can- 
ning desired  that  the  United  States  and  England 
should  mutually  confide  to  each  other  and  declare 
"in  the  face  of  the  world." 

Confronted  with  Canning's  important  proposition, 
Rush,  who  doubted  the  disinterestedness  of  Eng- 
land, prudently  attempted  to  exact  a  preliminary 
recognition  of  the  Spanish-American  republics;  if 
Canning  would  agree  to  take  this  action,  he  would 
accept  the  responsibility  of  engaging  in  such  a  decla- 
ration.' Having  failed  in  four  successive  efforts  to 
persuade  Rush  to  join  in  an  immediate  declaration, 
irrespective  of  prior  recognition  by  England,  Can- 
ning proceeded  alone,  and,  in  an  interview  with 
Polignac,  the  French  minister  in  London,  on  Octo- 
ber 9,  1823,  he  announced  substantially  the  princi- 
ples which  he  had  expressed  to  the  American  min- 
ister.^ Polignac  thereupon  disclaimed  for  France 
any  intention  to  appropriate  Spanish  possessions  in 
America,  and  abjured  any  design,  on  the  part  of  his 
country,  of  acting  against  the  colonies  by  force; 
but  he  significantly  added  that  the  future  relations 
between  Spain  and  her  colonies  ought  to  form  a 
subject  of  discussion  between  the  European  powers. 
Acting  on  this  idea,  and  in  opposition  to  England's 

'  Ford,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings  (2d  series),  XV.,  420, 
423.  *  Stapleton,  Political  Life  of  Canning,  II.,  26. 


1823]  MONROE    DOCTRINE  215 

wishes,  an  invitation  was  sent  to  Russia,  Prussia, 
and  Austria  to  confer  at  Paris  on  the  relations  of 
Spain  and  her  revolted  provinces. 

Rush's  despatches  relating  the  overtures  of  Can- 
ning reached  President  Monroe  ^  October  9,  1823, 
on  the  same  day  that  Canning  was  interviewing 
Polignac.  Adam's  was  absent  from  Washington  at 
the  time,  and  Monroe,  returning  to  Virginia,  con- 
sulted ex-Presidents  Jefferson  and  Madison.  He 
clearly  intimated  his  own  belief  that  the  present 
case  might  be  an  exception  to  the  general  maxim 
against  entanglement  in  European  politics,  and  was 
evidently  willing  to  accept  the  proposal  of  the  Brit- 
ish government.^ 

To  Jefferson  ^  the  question  seemed  the  most  mo- 
mentous since  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
One  nation,  most  of  all,  he  thought,  could  disturb 
America  in  its  efforts  to  have  an  independent  sys- 
tem, and  that  nation,  England,  now  offered  "  to  lead, 
aid,  and  accompany  us  in  it."  He  believed  that 
by  acceding  to  her  proposition  her  mighty  weight 
would  be  brought  into  the  scale  of  free  government, 
and  "emancipate  a  continent  at  one  stroke."  Con- 
struing the  English  proposition  to  be  a  maintenance 
of  our  own  principle  of  "  keeping  out  of  our  land  all 
foreign  powers,"  he  was  ready  to  accept  Canning's 
invitation.  He  was  even  ready  to  yield  his  desire 
for  the   annexation   or  independence   of  Cuba,   in 

1  Ford,  in  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  VII.,  684. 

^Monroe,  Writings,  VI.,  323.  ^  Ibid.,  VI.,  394. 


2i6  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1823 

order  to  obtain  England's  co-operation.  Madison,* 
also,  was  prepared  to  accept  the  English  proposal, 
and  to  invite  that  government  to  join  in  disapproval 
of  the  campaign  of  France  in  Spain  and  in  a  declara- 
tion in  behalf  of  the  Greeks. 

Thus,  by  a  strange  operation  of  fate,  members  of 
the  "Virginia  dynasty,"  the  traditional  antagonists 
of  England,  were  now  willing  to  accept  her  leader- 
ship in  American  affairs,  and  were  inclined  to  min- 
gle in  European  concerns  in  opposition  to  the  Holy 
AUiance.  By  an  equally  strange  chance,  it  was  a 
statesman  from  New  England,  the  section  tradition- 
ally friendly  to  British  leadership,  who  prevented 
the  United  States  from  casting  itself  into  the  arms 
of  England  at  this  crisis,  and  who  summoned  his 
country  to  stand  forth  independently  as  the  protec- 
tor of  an  American  system. 

When  John  Ouincy  Adams  learned  of  Canning's 
proposals,  he  had  just  been  engaged  in  a  discussion 
with  the  representative  of  the  czar,  who  informed 
him  of  the  refusal  of  Russia  to  recognize  the  Spanish- 
American  republics,  and  expressed  the  hope  that 
America  would  continue  her  policy  of  neutrality. 

While  the  cabinet  had  Rush's  despatches  imder 
consideration,  Adams  received  a  second  communi- 
cation from  the  Russian  minister,  expounding  the 
reactionary  ideas  of  the  Holy  Alliance.^    To  the 

*  Madison,  Writings  (ed.  of  1865),  III.,  339-341. 
^Ford,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings  (2d  series),  XV.,  378, 
395,  402-408. 


1823]  MONROE    DOCTRINE  217 

secretary  of  state  this  was  a  challenge  to  defend 
the  American  ideas  of  liberty.  Convinced  that  his 
country  ought  to  decline  the  overture  of  Great  Brit- 
ain and  avow  its  principles  explicitly  to  Russia  and 
France,  "rather  than  to  come  in  as  a  cock-boat  in 
the  wake  of  the  British  man-of-war,"  Adams  in- 
formed the  president  that  the  reply  to  Russia  and 
the  instructions  to  Rush  in  England  must  be  part 
of  a  combined  system  of  policy.  "  The  ground  that 
I  wish  to  take,"  he  said,  "is  that  of  earnest  remon- 
strance against  the  interference  of  European  powers 
by  force  with  South  America,  but  to  disclaim  all 
interference  on  our  part  with  Europe;  to  make  an 
American  cause  and  adhere  inflexibly  to  that."  ' 

In  the  cabinet  he  stood  firmly  against  giving 
guarantees  to  England  with  respect  to  Cuba.  He 
heartened  up  his  colleagues,  who  were  alarmed  at 
the  possibility  of  the  spread  of  war  to  the  United 
States ;  but  at  the  same  time  that  he  dismissed  this 
danger  as  remote  he  pictured  to  the  cabinet  the 
alarming  alternatives  in  case  the  allies  subjugated 
Spanish  America:  California,  Peru,  and  Chili  might 
fall  to  Russia;  Cuba,  to  England;  and  Mexico,  to 
France.  The  danger  was  even  at  our  doors,  he  de- 
clared, for  within  a  few  days  the  minister  of  France 
had  openly  threatened  to  recover  Louisiana. ^  Such 
suggestions  exhibit  the  real  significance  of  the  prob- 

'  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  178,  194,  197,  199-212. 

'i^J!^-  ^^■'  ^°7;  cf.  Reeves,  in  ^ohns  Hopkins' Univ.  Studies, 
XXIII.,  Nos.  9,  10. 


2i8  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1823 

lem,  which  in  truth  involved  the  question  of  whether 
America  should  lie  open  to  seizure  by  rival  European 
nations,  each  fearful  lest  the  other  gain  an  undue 
advantage.  It  was  time  for  the  United  States  to 
take  its  stand  against  intervention  in  this  hemi- 
sphere. 

Monroe  was  persuaded  by  Adams  to  change  the 
first  draught  of  his  message,  in  which  the  president 
criticised  the  invasion  of  Spain  by  France  and 
recommended  the  acknowledgment  of  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  Greeks,  in  terms  which  seemed  to 
threaten  war  with  Europe  on  European  questions. 
Even  Webster  and  Clay,  in  fervent  orations,  showed 
themselves  ready  to  go  far  towards  committing 
the  United  States  to  an  unwise  support  of  the 
cause  of  the  Greeks,  which  at  this  time  was  deeply 
stirring  the  sympathy  of  the  United  States.  On  the 
other  hand,  Adams  stood  firmly  on  the  well-estab- 
lished doctrine  of  isolation  from  Europe,  and  of  an 
independent  utterance,  by  the  United  States,  as  the 
leader  in  the  New  World,  of  the  principles  of  a  purely 
American  system.  In  the  final  draught,  these  ideas 
were  all  accepted,  as  well  as  the  principles  affirmed 
by  Adams  in  his  conferences  with  the  Russian  min- 
ister. 

When  sent  to  Congress,  on  December  2,  1823, 
Monroe's  message  asserted  "  as  a  principle  in  which 
the  rights  and  interests  of  the  United  States  are 
involved,  that  the  American  continents,  by  the  free 
and  independent  condition  which  they  have  assumed 


1823]  MONROE    DOCTRINE  219 

and  maintain,  are  henceforth  not  to  be  considered 
as  subjects  for  future  colonization  by  any  European 
powers."  This  was  in  effect  the  proclamation  of 
the  end  of  a  process  that  began  with  Columbus, 
Cabot,  and  Cartier  — the  rivalry  of  the  nations  of 
the  Old  World  in  the  discovery,  occupation,  and 
political  control  of  the  wild  lands  of  the  western 
hemisphere.  The  interpretation  by  the  next  ad- 
ministration left  the  enforcement  of  this  general 
principle  to  the  various  American  states  according 
to  their  interests.* 

The  message  further  dealt  with  the  determination 
of  the  United  States  not  to  meddle  with  European 
affairs.  "  It  is  only  when  our  rights  are  invaded  or 
seriously  menaced,"  said  Monroe,  "that  we  resent 
injuries  or  make  preparation  for  our  defense.  With 
the  movements  in  this  hemisphere  we  are  of  neces- 
sity more  immediately  connected,  and  by  causes 
which  must  be  obvious  to  all  enlightened  and  im- 
partial observers.  The  political  system  of  the  alHed 
powers  is  essentially  different  in  this  respect  from 
that  of  America."  This  declaration  expressed  the 
consciousness  that  there  was  a  real  American  system 
contrasted  with  that  of  Europe  and  capable  of  sep- 
arate existence. 

Finally,  the  message  met  the  immediate  crisis  by 
a  bold  assertion  of  the  policy  of  the  United  States : 
"  We  owe  it,  therefore,  to  candor  and  to  the  amica- 
ble relations  existing  between  the  United  States  and 
'  See  chap.  xvi.  below. 


220  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1823 

those  powers  to  declare  that  we  should  consider  any 
attempt  on  their  part  to  extend  their  system  to  any 
portion  of  this  hemisphere  as  dangerous  to  our  peace 
and  safety.  With  the  existing  colonies  or  depend- 
encies of  any  European  power  we  have  not  inter- 
fered and  shall  not  interfere.  But  with  the  Govern- 
ments who  have  declared  their  independence  and 
maintained  it,  and  whose  independence  we  have,  on 
great  consideration  and  on  just  principles,  acknowl- 
edged, we  could  not  view  any  interposition  for  the 
purpose  of  oppressing  them,  or  controlling  in  any 
other  manner  their  destiny,  by  any  European  power 
in  any  other  light  than  as  the  manifestation  of  an 
unfriendly  disposition  toward  the  United  States."  ^ 
Herein  was  the  assertion  of  the  well-established 
opposition  of  the  United  States  to  the  doctrine  of 
intervention  as  violating  the  equality  of  nations. 
It  was  the  affirmation  also  of  the  equality  of  the  Old 
and  the  New  World  in  diplomatic  relations,  and 
the  announcement  of  the  paramount  interest  of  the 
United  States  in  American  affairs.^ 

This  classic  statement  of  the  position  of  the 
United  States  in  the  New  World,  therefore,  appHed 
an  old  tendency  on  the  part  of  this  country  to  a  par- 
ticular exigency.  Its  authorship  can  hardly  be  at- 
tributed to  any  single  individual,  but  its  peculiar 

*  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers,  II.,  207-218;  cf.  Hart, 
Foundations  of  Am.  Foreign  Policy,  chap.  vii. 

2  Moore,  "  Non  -  Intervention  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine,"  in 
Harper's  Mag.,  CI X.,  857. 


1823]  MONROE    DOCTRINE  221 

significance  at  this  juncture  lay  in  the  fact  that  the 
United  States  came  forward,  unconnected  with  Eu- 
rope, as  the  champion  of  the  autonomy  and  free- 
dom of  America,  and  declared  that  the  era  of  Euro- 
pean colonization  in  the  New  World  had  passed 
away.  The  idea  of  an  American  system,  under  the 
leadership  of  the  United  States,  unhampered  by 
dependence  upon  European  diplomacy,  had  been 
eloquently  and  clearly  voiced  by  Henry  Clay  in 
1820.  But  John  Quincy  Adams  also  reached  the 
conception  of  an  independent  American  system,  and 
to  him  belongs  the  credit  for  the  doctrine  that  the 
two  Americas  were  closed  to  future  political  colo- 
nization. His  office  of  secretary  of  state  placed  him 
where  he  was  able  to  insist  upon  a  consistent,  clear- 
cut,  and  independent  expression  of  the  doctrine  of 
an  American  system.  Monroe's  was  the  honor  of 
taking  the  responsibility  for  these  utterances.^ 

Canning  afterwards  boasted,  "I  called  the  New 
World  into  existence  to  redress  the  balance  of  the 
Old."  2  Unquestionably  his  determination  that  "if 
France  had  Spain  it  should  not  be  Spain  with  the 
Indies,"  materially  contributed  to  make  effective 
the  protest  of  the  United  States,  and  he  recognized 
the  value  of  the  president's  message  in  putting 
an  end  to  the  proposal  of  a  European  congress. 
"It  was  broken,"  said  he,  "in  all  its  limbs  before, 

'Cf.  Reddaway,  Monroe  Doctrine,  chap,  v.;  and  Ford,  in  Am 
Hist.  Rev.,  VII.,  676,  VIII.,  28. 

2  Stapleton,  Political  Life  of  Canning,  III.,  227. 


222  RISE   OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1825 

but  the  president's  message  gives  it  the  coup  de 
grdcer  ' 

Nevertheless,  the  assertion  by  the  United  States 
of  an  American  system  independent  of  Europe,  and 
the  proposed  exclusion  of  Europe  from  further  col- 
onization were,  in  truth,  as  obnoxious  to  England 
as  they  were  to  France.^  "The  great  danger  of  the 
time,"  declared  Canning  in  1825,  shortly  after  the 
British  recognition  of  Mexico,  " — a  danger  which 
the  policy  of  the  European  system  would  have  fos- 
tered— was  a  division  of  the  world  into  European 
and  American,  republican  and  monarchical ;  a  league 
of  wornout  governments  on  the  one  hand  and  of 
youthful  and  stirring  nations,  with  the  United  States 
at  their  head,  on  the  other.  We  slip  in  between,  and 
plant  ourselves  in  Mexico.  The  United  States  have 
gotten  the  start  of  us  in  vain,  and  we  link  once  more 
America  to  Europe."  On  December  17,  1824,  Can- 
ning wrote :  "  Spanish  America  is  free ;  and  if  we  do 
not  mismanage  our  matters  sadly,  she  is  English,  and 
novus  sceclormn  nascititr  ordo."^ 

Later  events  were  to  reveal  how  unsubstantial 
were  the  hopes  of  the  British  minister.  For  the 
present,  his  hands  were  tied  by  the  fact  that  England 
and  the  United  States  had  a  common  interest  in  safe- 
guarding Spanish  America ;  and  the  form  of  Monroe's 

*  Stapleton,  George  Canning  and  His  Times,  395. 

^  Reddaway,  Monroe  Doctrine,  98. 

^  Festing,  J.  H.  Frere  and  His  Friends,  267,  quoted  by  E.  M. 
Lloyd,  in  Royal  Hist.  Soc.  Transactions  (new  series),  XVIII., 
77.  93- 


i82s]  MONROE    DOCTRINE  223 

declaration  seemed  less  important  than  its  effective- 
ness in  promoting  this  result.  In  the  United  States 
the  message  was  received  with  approbation.  Al- 
though Clay,  from  considerations  of  policy,  with- 
drew a  resolution  which  he  presented  to  Congress 
(January  20,  1824),  giving  legislative  endorsement  to 
the  doctrine,'  there  was  no  doubt  of  the  sympathy  of 
the  American  people  with  its  fundamental  principles. 
Together  with  the  attitude  of  England,  it  put  an  end 
to  the  menace  of  the  Holy  Alliance  on  this  side  of  the 
ocean,  and  it  began  a  new  chapter,  yet  unfinished, 
in  the  history  of  the  predominance  of  the  United 
States  in  the  New  World. 

'  Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  1104,  II.,  2763. 

VOL.    XIV. — 16 


CHAPTER   XIII 

INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS 
(1818-1824) 

THE  transformation  by  which  the  slender  line 
of  the  Indian  trail  became  the  trader's  trace, 
and  then  a  road,  superseded  by  the  turnpike  and 
canal,  and  again  replaced  by  the  railroad,  is  typical 
of  the  economic  development  of  the  United  States. 
As  the  population  of  the  west  increased,  its  surplus 
products  sought  outlets.  Improved  means  of  com- 
munication became  essential,  and  when  these  were 
furnished  the  new  lines  of  internal  trade  knitted  the 
nation  into  organic  unity  and  replaced  the  former 
colonial  dependence  upon  Europe,  in  the  matter  of 
commerce,  by  an  extensive  domestic  trade  between 
the  various  sections.  From  these  changes  flowed 
important  political  results.* 

Many  natural  obstacles  checked  this  process.  The 
Appalachian  mountain  system  cut  off  the  seaboard 
of  the  United  States  from  the  interior.  From  the 
beginning,  the  Alleghanies  profoundly  influenced  the 
course  of  American  history,  and  at  one  time  even 

'  For  the  earlier  phase  of  internal  improvements,  cf .  Babcock, 
Am.  Nationality  {Am.  Nation,  XIII.).  chap.  xv. 


i82o]  INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENTS  225 

endangered  the  permanency  of  the  Union.  In  our 
own  day  the  railroad  has  so  reduced  the  importance 
of  these  mountains  that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize 
the  part  which  they  once  played  in  our  development. 
Although  Webster  boasted  that  there  were  no  Alle- 
ghanies  in  his  politics,  we  have  already  seen*  that  in 
the  twenties  they  exercised  a  dominant  influence  on 
the  lines  of  internal  commerce,  and  compelled  the 
pioneer  farmers  to  ship  their  surplus  down  the  Missis- 
sippi to  New  Orleans  and  around  the  coast,  and 
thence  abroad  and  to  the  cities  of  the  north.  The  dif- 
ficult and  expensive  process  of  wagoning  goods  from 
Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  across  the  mountains 
to  the  Ohio  Valley  raised  the  price  of  manufactured 
goods  to  the  western  farmer;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  cost  of  transportation  for  his  crops  left 
him  little  profit  and  reduced  the  value  of  his  lands. ^ 
Under  these  circumstances,  it  was  inevitable  that 
the  natural  opportunities  furnished  by  the  water 
system  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  widely  ramifying 
tributaries  of  the  Mississippi  should  appeal  to  states- 
men who  considered  the  short  distances  that  inter- 
vened between  these  navigable  waters  and  the  rivers 
that  sought  the  Atlantic.  Turnpikes  and  canals  had 
already  shown  themselves  practicable  and  profitable 
in  England,  so  a  natural  effort  arose  to  use  them 
in  aid  of  that  movement  for  connecting  east  and  west 
by  ties  of  interest  which  Washington  had  so  much  at 

*  See  chaps,  iii.,  vi.,  above. 

?  Journ.  of  Polit.  Econ.,  VIIL,  36-41, 


226  RISE   OF  THE   NEW  WEST  [1817 

heart.  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and 
Virginia,  all  subdivided  by  the  mountains  into  east- 
em  and  western  sections,  fostered  roads  and  char- 
tered turnpike  and  canal  companies.  Pennsylvania 
was  pre-eminent  in  this  movement  even  before  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  subscribing  large 
amounts  to  the  stock  of  turnpike  companies  in  order 
to  promote  the  trade  between  Philadelphia  and  the 
growing  population  in  the  region  of  Pittsburg.  So 
numerous  were  the  projects  and  beginnings  of  roads 
and  canals  in  the  nation,  that  as  early  as  1808  the 
far-sighted  Gallatin  made  his  famous  report  for  a 
complete  national  system  of  roads  and  canals.^ 

When  New  York  undertook  the  Erie  Canal  in  181 7 
as  a  state  enterprise,  and  pushed  it  to  ^ch  a  tri- 
umphant conclusion  that  before  a  decade  after  its 
completion  its  tolls  repaid  the  cost  of  construction, 
a  revolution  was  effected  in  transportation.  The 
cheapness  of  water  carriage  not  only  compelled  the 
freighters  on  the  turnpike  roads  to  lower  their 
charges,  but  also  soon  made  it  probable  that  ca- 
nals would  supersede  land  transportation  for  heavy 
freights,  and  even  for  passengers.  For  a  time  the 
power  of  Pittsburg  and  the  activity  of  Philadel- 
phia merchants  sustained  the  importance  of  the 
Pennsylvania  turnpike.  Until  Great  Lake  steam 
navigation  developed  and  population  spread  along 
the  shore  of  Lake  Erie  and  canals  joined  the  Ohio 
and  the  lakes,  the  Erie  Canal  did  not  reap  its  harvest 
'  Cf.  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition  (Am.  Nation,  XVI.),  chap.  iii. 


II    1/   L    IK^UJI^IfeS      j)lii<liaiia|>j^i»       /  J    '  (        0»»"1®(W 


11/  <.    I       I       Vi  ^  U   U.I  i^  HI 

<        "Sly     /^^^- -L/' ^W' A"*  4  V'^  ^L^f^JrK      v\'- • 


Wma(fslirl    I 


S5  L..n£itu.U-  sa 


/  »;,„w„«S7P    r^,^'^^    Ki"i?»t«"_^^v  VjVburlMon    5,     "^  lanca8tk^fQ3.,,iy       M^S^P^ 

3a-«sttaii+ — ^  ij-r  -V*"    S-  .!!^^ _  }t"""t'"")   '''"■»•','■  iVi'.rt-iiiouth 


CoojjgrsiMjrt  I 


(-l^raDkliB 


"I   i {. 


'iMiila.U-lijb' 
'JKItSKY 


Z-       ^      .V      T 


luthtrr..['.it..a         f'^y         SmillJielJ^^a,  Washini^toi?^  /' J 

'(]!//(?  Luvkoiit 


0\      G      E     \A      N 


HIGHAVAYS 

AND  AVATERAVAYS 

IX  THE 

UNITED  STATES 

1826-1830 

Buoed  on  II.S.TaiiiierV  Map  of  IH35 

SCALE  OF  MILES 


0     25 

50 

75 

100 

150           200 

^*». 

^^   Canals  in  progress 

——  Roads 

_. 

.__ 

—  —  Roads  in 

progress 

7U-       Greenwich  77' 


1824]  INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENTS  227 

of  trade  in  the  west.  But  already  Pennsylvania  was 
alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  losing  her  commercial 
ascendency. 

While  New  York  and  Philadelphia  were  develop- 
ing canals  and  turnpikes  to  reach  the  west,  Balti- 
more was  placed  in  an  awkward  position.  The  at- 
tempts to  improve  the  waters  of  the  upper  Potomac 
engaged  the  interests  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  from 
the  days  of  Washington.  But  the  success  of  the 
Potomac  Company,  chartered  jointly  by  these  two 
states  in  an  effort  to  reach  the  Ohio  trade,  would 
have  turned  traffic  towards  the  city  of  Washington 
and  its  outlying  suburbs  instead  of  towards  Balti- 
more, which  was  already  connected  by  a  turnpike 
with  the  Cumberland  Road,  so  as  to  share  with  Phila- 
delphia in  the  wagon  trade  to  the  Ohio.  On  the 
other  hand,  Baltimore  was  interested  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  Susquehanna's  navigation,  for  this 
river  had  its  outlet  in  Chesapeake  Bay,  near  enough 
to  Baltimore  to  make  that  city  its  entrepot;  and 
it  tapped  the  great  valley  of  Pennsylvania  as  well 
as  the  growing  agricultural  area  of  south-central 
New  York,  which  was  not  tributary  to  the  Erie 
Canal.  But  it  was  not  possible  to  expect  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  or  even  that  part  of  Maryland  inter- 
ested in  the  Potomac  to  aid  these  ambitions  of 
Baltimore;  and  that  city  found  itself  at  a  disad- 
vantage and  Maryland's  interests  were  divided.^ 

'  Hulbert,  Historic  Highways,  XIII.,  69  et  seq.;  Mills,  Treatise 
on  Inland  Navig.;  see  chap,  xvii.,  below. 


228  RISE    OF    THE    NEW  WEST  [1817 

Meantime,  Virginia,  anxious  to  check  the  western 
exodus  from  the  interior  of  her  state,  established  a 
state  fund  and  a  board  of  public  works  for  the  im- 
provement of  her  rivers,  including  the  project  of  con- 
necting the  James  and  Kanawha/  North  Carolina 
was  agitating  similar  plans  ;^  and  South  Carolina 
made  appropriations  for  extensive  improvements. 

New  England  devoted  her  attention  to  canals 
along  the  seaboard  and  up  the  Connecticut  Valley, 
to  give  the  products  of  the  interior  of  that  section  an 
outlet  on  the  coast.  Boston  was  feeling  the  isolation 
from  the  western  trade  that  was  enriching  New  York, 
and  some  voices  were  raised  in  favor  of  a  canal  to 
reach  the  Hudson ;  but  the  undertaking  was  too  diffi- 
cult, and  the  metropolis  of  New  England  devoted  its 
energies  to  the  ocean  commerce. 

Meantime,  the  west  was  urging  the  federal  govern- 
ment to  construct  those  interstate  roads  and  canals 
which  were  essential  to  the  prosperity  of  that  section 
and  which  could  not  be  undertaken  by  jealous  and 
conflicting  states.  The  veto  by  Madison  of  Calhoun's 
bonus  bill,  in  1817,^  was  followed  nine  months  later 
by  Monroe's  first  annual  message,^  in  which  he  stated 
his  belief  that  the  Constitution  did  not  empower 

'  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  (Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap.  xv. ; 
Adams,  United  States,  IX.,  164. 

^  Murphy,  Memorial  on  Internal  Improvements;  Weaver,  In- 
ternal Improvements  in  N.  C.  ,  in  Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies, 
XXI.,  113. 

'  Cf.  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  (Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap, 
xvii.  *  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers,  II.,  18. 


i8i8]  INTERNAL    IMPROVEMENTS  229 

♦ 
Congress  to  establish  a  system  of  internal  improve- 
ments, and  recommended  an  amendment  to  convey 
the  power.  To  Clay  and  the  friends  of  internal  im- 
provements, these  constitutional  scruples  of  the  Vir- 
ginia dynasty,  although  accompanied  by  approval 
of  the  plan  of  a  system  of  internal  improvements  at 
federal  expense,  came  as  a  challenge.  In  an  impor- 
tant debate  on  the  constitutionality  of  national  in- 
ternal improvements,  in  181 8,  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, voting  on  four  resolutions  submitted  by 
Lowndes,  of  South  Carolina,*  declared  that  Congress 
had  power  to  appropriate  money  for  the  construc- 
tion of  military  roads,  and  of  other -roads,  and  of 
canals,  and  for  the  improvement  of  watercourses 
(89  ayes  to  75  nays).^  But  after  a  debate  which 
turned  on  the  significance  of  the  word  "establish" 
in  the  Constitution,  the  House  decided  against  the 
power  to  construct  post-roads  and  military  roads 
(81  to  84) ;  against  the  power  to  construct  roads  and 
canals  necessary  to  commerce  between  the  states  (7 1 
to  95) ;  and  against  the  power  to  construct  canals  for 
military  purposes  (81  to  83). 

It  was  clear  after  this  debate  that  there  was  not 
a  sufficient  majority  to  override  the  veto  which 
might  be  expected  from  the  president.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  majority  were  unwilling  to  hazard  the 
rights  which  they  claimed  to  possess,  by  appealing 
to  the  states  for  a  constitutional  amendment.     The 

^Annals  of  Cong.,  15  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  1249 
*  By  count  of  names;  the  Journal  gives  ayes  90. 


230  RISE    OF    THE    NEW  WEST  [1818 

* 
next  year  Calhoun,  the  secretary  of  war,  responding 
to  an  invitation  of  Congress,  submitted  a  report  out- 
lining a  comprehensive  system  of  internal  improve- 
ments requisite  for  the  defence  of  the  United  States. 
While  avoiding  an  opinion  on  the  question  of  con- 
stitutionality, he  declared  that  a  judicious  system 
of  roads  and  canals,  constructed  for  commerce  and 
the  mail,  would  be  "  itself  among  the  most  efficient 
means  for  the  more  complete  defense  of  the  United 
States  " ; '  and  he  favored  the  use  of  the  engineering 
corps  for  surveying  the  routes  and  of  federal  troops 
for  the  actual  work  of  construction. 

By  18 1 8  the  National  Road^  had  been  construct- 
ed from  Cumberland,  on  the  Potomac,  across  the 
mountains  to  Wheeling,  on  the  Ohio,  and  two  years 
later  Congress  made  appropriations  for  a  survey  of 
the  road  westward  to  the  Mississippi  River.  The 
panic  of  18 19,  however,  left  the  treasury  in  such  a 
condition  that  it  was  not  until  1822  that  the  preser- 
vation and  construction  of  this  highway  was  again 
taken  up  with  vigor.  In  that  year  a  bill  was  intro- 
duced authorizing  the  president  to  cause  toll-houses, 
gates,  and  turnpikes  to  be  erected  on  the  Cumber- 
land Road,  and  to  appoint  toll-gatherers,  with  power 
to  enforce  the  collection  of  tolls  to  be  used  for  the 
preservation  of  the  road.     The  bill  further  provided 

*  Am.  State  Paps.,  Miscellaneous,  534. 

*  Cf.  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  {Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap. 
XV.;  Young,  Cumberland  Road,  15;  Hulbert,  Historic  Highways, 
X.,  chap.  i. 


i822]  INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENTS  231 

for  a  system  of  fines  for  violation  of  the  laws  of  the 
road.  It  therefore  involved  the  question  of  the  right 
of  jurisdiction  as  well  as  of  construction. 

The  measure  passed  the  House  of  Representatives 
by  a  vote  of  87  to  68.  The  districts  along  the  line 
of  the  Potomac  and  the  Ohio,  and  the  regions  tribu- 
tary to  the  road  in  Pennsylvania  and  western  Vir- 
ginia, were  almost  a  unit  in  favor  of  the  bill.  In- 
deed, the  whole  vote  of  the  western  states,  with  the 
exception  of  two  members  from  Tennessee,  was  given 
in  the  affirmative.  But  Pittsburg,  which  feared  the 
diversion  of  her  western  trade  to  Baltimore,  opposed 
the  bill.  The  area  along  the  Susquehanna  which 
looked  to  Baltimore  also  voted  in  the  negative,  as 
did  the  majority  of  the  delegation  from  New  York, 
who  were  apprehensive  of  the  effect  of  the  National 
Road  as  a  rival  to  the  Erie  Canal.  The  Senate 
passed  the  bill  by  the  decisive  vote  of  29  to  7. 

Monroe  vetoed  this  measure,  on  the  ground  that 
it  implied  a  powder  to  execute  a  complete  system  of 
internal  improvements,  with  the  right  of  jurisdic- 
tion and  sovereignty.  Accompanying  his  veto  (May 
4,  1822),  he  submitted  "Views  on  the  Subject  of 
Internal  Improvements."  ^  In  this  elaborate  dis- 
quisition, he  rehearsed  the  constitutional  history  of 
internal  improvements,  and  expounded  his  concep- 

*  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers,  II.,  142-183;  Monroe, 
Writings ,W .,  2 16 ;  Mason,  Veto  Power,  §85;  Nelson,  Presidential 
Influence  on  Int.  Imp.  {Iowa  Journal  of  Hist,  and  Politics) ,  IV., 
29.  30. 


232  RISE    OF    THE    NEW   WEST  [1S22 

tion  of  the  construction  of  the  Constitution,  and  of 
the  relation  of  the  states  and  the  nation  under  the 
theory  of  divided  sovereignty.  Although  he  denied 
to  the  federal  government  the  right  of  jurisdiction 
and  construction,  he  asserted  that  Congress  had  un- 
limited power  to  raise  money,  and  that  "  in  its  appro- 
priation, they  have  a  discretionary  power,  restricted 
only  by  their  duty  to  appropriate  it  to  purposes  of 
common  defense  and  of  general,  not  local,  national, 
not  state,  benefit."  Nevertheless,  he  strongly  rec- 
ommended a  system  of  internal  improvements,  if  it 
could  be  established  by  means  of  a  constitutional 
amendment.  Both  houses  sustained  the  president's 
veto. 

Acting  upon  Monroe's  intimation  of  the  power  to 
appropriate  money,  and  following  the  line  of  least 
resistance,  the  next  year  an  act  was  passed  making 
appropriations  for  repairs  of  the  Cumberland  Road. 
On  March  3,  1823,  also,  was  signed  the  first  of  the 
national  acts  for  the  improvement  of  harbors.^ 
The  irresistible  demand  for  better  internal  com- 
munications and  the  development  of  a  multitude  of 
local  projects,  chief  among  them  a  new  plan  for  unit- 
ing Chesapeake  Bay  with  the  Ohio  by  a  canal  along 
the  Potomac,  resulted,  in  1824,  in  the  introduction  of 
the  general  survey  bill,  authorizing  the  president  to 
cause  surveys  to  be  made  for  such  roads  and  canals 
as  he  deemed  of  national  importance  for  commercial, 
military,  or  postal  purposes.     The  evident  intention 

»  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,  III.,  780. 


i824]  INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENTS  233 

of  the  bill  was  to  prepare  a  programme  for  appro- 
priations for  internal  improvements  on  a  national 
scale,  and  for  subscription  to  the  stock  of  companies 
engaged  in  these  enterprises.  The  discussion  of  the 
general  survey  bill  brought  out  the  significance  of 
the  problem  of  transportation,  and  revealed  the  sec- 
tional divisions  of  the  nation  in  clear  light. 

Henry  Clay  made  an  earnest  effort  to  commit  Con- 
gress to  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  construction  of 
interstate  highways  and  canals  which  could  not  be 
undertaken  by  individual  states  or  by  combinations 
of  states,  and  which,  if  built  at  all,  must  be  by  the 
nation.  He  recounted  the  attention  given  by  Con- 
gress to  the  construction  of  public  buildings  and 
light-houses,  coast  surveys,  erection  of  sea-walls  in 
the  Atlantic  states — "everything  on  the  margin  of 
the  ocean,  but  nothing  for  domestic  trade ;  nothing 
for  the  great  interior  of  the  country."  ^  "N.ot  one 
stone,"  he  said,  "  had  yet  been  broken,  not  one  spade 
of  earth  removed,  in  any  Western  State."  He  boldly 
claimed  that  the  right  to  regulate  commerce  granted 
as  fully  the  power  to  construct  roads  and  canals  for 
the  benefit  of  circulation  and  trade  in  the  interior  as 
it  did  the  power  to  promote  coastwise  traffic.  His 
speech  was  a  strong  assertion  of  the  right  of  the  west 
to  equality  of  treatment  with  the  old  sections  of  the 
country.  "A  new  world,"  said  he,  "has  come  into 
being  since  the  Constitution  was  adopted.  Are  the 
narrow,  limited  necessities  of  the  old  thirteen  states, 

•  Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  1035. 


234  RISE    OF    THE    NEW  WEST  [1824 

of,  indeed,  parts  only  of  the  old  thirteen  states,  as  they 
existed  at  the  formation  of  the  present  Constitution, 
forever  to  remain  the  rule  of  its  interpretation?"^ 

In  contrast  with  the  united  attitude  of  the  west 
upon  internal  improvements,  which  Henry  Clay 
voiced  with  such  lofty  accent,  the  south  showed 
divisions  which  reflected  opposing  economic  inter- 
ests in  the  section.  Not  only  were  the  representa- 
tives of  Maryland  almost  a  unit  in  support  of  the  bill, 
but  also  the  western  districts  of  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina,  as  well  as  a  considerable  fraction  of  the 
representatives  from  South  Carolina  and  Georgia, 
supported  the  cause  of  the  west  on  this  occasion. 

The  opposition  in  the  south  found,  perhaps,  its 
most  inflexible  expression  in  the  speech  of  John 
Randolph,^  who,  with  characteristic  recklessness  and 
irresponsibility,  dragged  from  its  closet  the  family 
skeleton  of  the  south,  and  warned  his  fellow  slave- 
holders that,  if  Congress  possessed  power  to  do  what 
was  proposed  by  the  bill,  they  might  emancipate 
every  slave  in  the  United  States,  "  and  with  stronger 
color  of  reason  than  they  can  exercise  the  power 
now  contended  for."  He  closed  by  threatening 
the  formation  of  associations  and  "every  other 
means  short  of  actual  insurrection."  "We  shall 
keep  on  the  windward  side  of  treason,"  said  he.' 

'  Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  1315;  Colton,  Private 
Cor  res  p.  of  Clay,  81. 

^Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  1296-1311. 

'  Cf.  Macon's  identical  views  in  1818  and  1824,  Univ.  of  North 
Carolina,  James  Spriint  Hist.  Monographs,  No.  2,  pp.  47,  72. 


1824]  INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENT  235 

On  the  other  hand,  McDuffie,  of  South  Carolina, 
the  friend  and  proteg6  of  Calhoun  and  a  later  leader 
of  the  nullification  forces,  supported  the  measure  and 
spoke  as  earnestly  in  favor  of  a  liberal  construction 
of  the  Constitution  as  any  of  the  most  enthusiastic 
supporters  of  the  bill.  He  declared  that  the  consti- 
tutional convention  "did  not  regard  the  state  gov- 
ernments as  sentinels  upon  the  watch-towers  of  free- 
dom, or  in  any  respect  more  worthy  of  confidence 
than  the  general  government." 

When  the  bill  came  to  the  final  vote  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  New  England  gave  12  votes  in 
favor  and  26  against;  the  middle  states,  37  to  26 
(New  York,  7  to  24) ;  the  south,  23  to  34;  the  west, 
43  to  o.  Thus  the  bill  carried  by  115  to  86.  As  the 
map  shows,  the  opposition  was  chiefly  located  in 
New  England  and  New  York  and  in  a  fragment  of 
the  old  south.  The  entire  west,  including  the  south- 
western slave  states,  with  Pennsylvania  and  the 
Potomac  Valley,  acted  together.  In  the  Senate,  the 
vote  stood  24  to  18.  Here  New  England  gave  an 
almost  sohd  vote  against  the  bill. 

Thus  by  the  close  of  Monroe's  administration  the 
forces  of  nationalism  seemed  to  have  triumphed  in 
the  important  field  of  internal  improvements.  It 
was  the  line  of  least  resistance  then,  as  it  had  been 
in  the  days  of  the  Annapolis  Convention.* 

*  McLaughlin,  Confederation  and  Constitution  {Am.  Nation, 
X.),  chap.  xi. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

THE  TARIFF  OF   1824 
(1820-1824) 

AS  has  been  shown  in  the  last  chapter,  the  atti- 
L  tude  of  portions  of  the  south  towards  strict 
construction  was  not  inveterate  upon  measures 
which  promised  advantages  to  that  section.  But 
the  tariff  struggle  revealed  the  spirit  which  arose 
when  powers  were  asserted  unfavorable  to  any  sec- 
Vj;ion.  The  failure  of  the  tariff  bill  of  1820*  was  fol- 
lowed by  other  unsuccessful  attempts  to  induce  a 
majority  of  Congress  to  revive  the  subject.  The 
messages  of  Monroe  favored  a  moderate  increase  of 
duties;  but  it  was  not  until  1824,  after  the  return  of 
Henry  Clay  and  his  triumphant  election  to  the  speak- 
ership, that  Congress  showed  a  protectionist  major- 
ity ably  disciplined  and  led.^ 

The  tariff  bill  of  1824  w^as  supported,  not  as  a 
revenue,  but  as  a  protective  measure.  It  proposed 
an  increase  of  the  duty  upon  iron,  hemp,  cotton 
bagging,  woollens,  and  cottons.   Upon  woollen  goods, 

1  See  above,  chap.  ix. 

^  For  previous  tariff  history,  cf.   Babcock,  Am.  Nationality 
(Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap.  xiv. 


1824]  THE   TARIFF  237 

the  friends  of  protection  desired  to  apply  the  mini- 
mum principle  which  the  tariff  of  18 16  had  pro- 
vided for  cotton  goods.  But  the  cheap  woollens 
were  mostly  used  for  the  clothing  of  southern  slaves, 
and  the  proposition  for  an  increase  of  duty  met 
with  so  strenuous  a  resistance  that  in  the  outcome 
the  cheap  foreign  goods  bore  a  lower  rate  of  duty 
than  did  the  high-priced  products.  Although  the 
act  somewhat  increased  the  protection  upon  woollen 
fabrics  as  a  whole,  this  was  more  than  offset  by  the 
increased  duty  which  was  levied  upon  raw  wool  in 
response  to  the  demand  of  the  wool-raising  interests 
of  the  country.* 

Another  struggle  occurred  over  the  protection  of 
hemp.  This  product  was  used  both  for  the  manu- 
facture of  the  ropes  essential  to  New  England  ship- 
ping and  for  the  cotton  bagging  used  in  the  south. 
Thus  the  shipping  and  the  slave  -  holding  sections 
were  brought  into  union  in  opposition  to  the  pro- 
vision. Nevertheless,  this  iniportant  Kentucky  in- 
terest received  a  substantial  protection.  The  at- 
tempt to  secure  a  marked  increase  of  the  duty  on 
iron  bars  resulted  in  a  compromise  proposition  which 
satisfied  neither  party  and  had  little  effect  upon 
domestic  manufacture,  while  it  increased  the  cost  to 
the  consumer.  The  Senate  amendments  reduced 
the  proposed  rates  on  the  most  important  articles, 
so  that,  on  the  whole,  the  extreme  protectionists 
failed  to  carry  their  programme,  although  the  bill 

'  Taussig,  Tariff  Hist.,  75. 


238  RISE    OF    THE    NEW    WEST  [1824 

increased  the  duties  upon  the  articles  most  essential 
to  the  shipping  and  planting  sections  sufficiently  to 
leave  great  discontent/ 

In  the  debates  upon  this  tariff,  Henry  Clay  led 
the  protectionist  forces,  basing  his  arguments  upon 
the  general  distress  of  the  country,  which  he  ex- 
plained by  the  loss  of  the  foreign  market  for  agricult- 
ural products,  and  which  he  would  remedy  by  build- 
ing up  a  home  market  by  means  of  the  support  of 
manufactures — the  creation  of  an  "American  sys- 
tem." "We  must  naturalize  the  arts  in  our  coun- 
try," said  he.  Not  the  least  significant  portion  of 
his  plea  for  protection  was  that  in  which  he  called 
attention  to  the  great  diversity  of  interests — "  agri- 
cultural, planting,  farming,  commercial,  navigating, 
fishing,  manufacturing" — within  the  United  States. 
Some  of  these  interests  were,  as  he  said,  peculiar  to 
particular  sections.  "  The  inquiry  should  be  in  refer- 
ence to  the  great  interests  of  every  section  of  the 
Union  (I  speak  not  of  minute  subdivisions) ;  what 
would  be  done  for  those  interests  if  that  section 
stood  alone  and  separated  from  the  residue  of  the 
Republic  ?  If  they  come  into  absolute  collision  with 
the  interests  of  another  section,  a  reconciliation,  if 
possible,  should  be  attempted,  by  mutual  concession, 
so  as  to  avoid  a  sacrifice  of  the  prosperity  of  either 
to  that  of  the  other."  ^ 

'  Stanwood,  Amer.  Tariff  Controversies,  I.,  chap.  vii. 
*  Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  II.,  1997;  cf.  Clay's  letter 
to  Brooke,  August  28,  1823,  Clay,  Private  Corresp.,  81. 


1824]  THE  TARIFF  239 

Perhaps  the  ablest  speech  on  the  other  side  was 
that  of  Webster,'  who  ridiculed  Clay's  discovery. 
"This  favorite  American  policy,"  said  he,  "is  what 
America  has  never  tried,  and  this  odious  foreign 
policy  is  what,  as  we  are  told,  foreign  states  have 
never  pursued."  He  denied  the  existence  of  gen- 
eral depression,  although  he  admitted  that  profits 
were  lower  and  prices  considerably  depressed.  Web- 
ster's argument  included  an  analysis  of  the  theory 
of  protection  as  against  free -trade,  in  which  he  made 
a  classical  statement  of  the  opposition  to  protection. 
In  short,  he  represented  the  attitude  of  the  com- 
mercial classes,  particularly  those  of  New  England, 
whose  interests  were  injured  by  any  restraint  of  the 
freedom  of  exchange.  As  yet  these  classes  exercised 
a  dominant  influence  in  Massachusetts. 

Senator  Hayne,  of  South  Carolina,  also  argued  the 
case  against  the  tariff  with  a  grasp  and  power  of  pres- 
entation that  was  hardly  second  to  that  of  Webster, 
In  particular  he  protested  against  compelling  the 
planting  regions  to  pay  the  cost  of  a  protective  sys- 
tem. Two-thirds  of  the  whole  amount  of  the  do- 
mestic exports  of  the  United  States,  he  argued,  were 
composed  of  cotton,  rice,  and  tobacco,  and  from  this 
trade  arose  the  imports  of  manufactured  goods  which 
paid  the  revenues  of  the  United  States,  and  which 
the  protective  system  rendered  expensive  and  bur- 
densome to  his  section.  He  warned  the  manufact- 
urers that  the  south  would  repeal  the  system  at  the 

1  "Webster,  Writings  (National  ed.),  V.,  94-149. 

VOL.   XIV. — 17 


240  RISE    OF    THE    NEW   WEST  [1824 

first  opportunity,  regardless  of  interests  that  might 
accrue  under  the  proposed  measure.^ 

In  the  speeches  of  some  of  the  representatives  of 
the  south  was  a  note  of  revolt  not  to  be  found  in 
Webster's  argument.  For  the  first  time  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  tariff,  the  constitutional  objection  was 
made  prominent.  It  was  argued  that  the  power  to 
impose  taxes  and  duties  was  given  for  the  purpose 
of  raising  revenue,  not  for  the  purpose  of  protec- 
tion. If  not  the  letter,  at  least  the  spirit,  of  the 
Constitution  was  violated,  so  it  was  charged,  by  this 
distortion  of  the  power  of  taxation.  The  proceed- 
ings of  the  constitutional  convention  were  recited  to 
show  that  a  proposition  conferring  the  alleged  pow- 
er was  voted  down.  To  this,  Clay  gave  the  reply 
that  the  clause  on  which  the  protectionists  relied 
was  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign 
nations. 

Even  the  south,  however,  laid  less  stress  upon  the 
constitutional  argument  than  upon  the  injustice  to 
the  section.  McDuffie,  for  example,  replying  to 
Clay,^  argued  that  no  one  of  the  great  sections  of 
the  country,  if  it  were  a  separate  nation,  could  ad- 
vantageously apply  the  system  of  protection.  He 
warned  the  western  states  that  the  system  would 
make  them  tributary  to  the  Atlantic  states,'  and 
that  they  had  more  to  lose  by  alienating  the  friend- 
ship of  the  south  for  a  system  of  internal  improve- 

^  Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  618. 

^  Ibid.,  II.,  2400  et  seq.  '  Ibid.,  II.,  2423. 


i824l  THE   TARIFF  241 

ments  which  should  facihtate  the  sale  of  their  meat 
products  to  the  south  than  by  a  union  with  the  man- 
ufacturing interests.  With  respect  to  the  south  it- 
self, he  declared  that  cotton,  which  alone  constituted 
one-third  of  the  whole  export  of  the  Union,  was  in 
danger  of  losing  the  market  of  England  if  we  ceased 
to  take  the  manufactures  of  that  country.  Protest- 
ing that  the  protective  system  would  strike  at  the 
root  of  their  prosperity,  by  enhancing  the  cost  of  the 
clothing  of  their  slaves  and  the  bagging  used  to  cover 
their  cotton-bales,  while  at  the  same  time  it  put  to 
hazard  the  sale  of  their  great  staple  in  the  English 
market,  he  yet  declared  that,  if  the  bill  should  pass, 
"even  with  a  majority  of  a  single  vote,  I  shall,  as 
bound  by  my  allegiance,  submit  to  it  as  one  of  the 
laws  of  my  country." 

But  if  this  South  Carolina  leader  represented  the 
attitude  of  his  state  in  showing  moderation  at  this 
time,*  not  so  did  the  free-lance  John  Randolph,  of 
Virginia.  "I  do  not  stop  here,  sir,"  said  he,  "to 
argue  about  the  constitutionality  of  this  bill ;  I  con- 
sider the  Constitution  a  dead  letter ;  I  consider  it  to 
consist,  at  this  time,  of  the  power  of  the  General  Gov- 
ernment and  the  power  of  the  States — that  is  the 
Constitution."  "I  have  no  faith  in  parchment,  sir; 
...  I  have  faith  in  the  power  of  the  commonwealth 
of  which  I  am  an  unworthy  son."  "If,  under  a 
power  to  regulate  trade,  you  prevent  exportation; 
if,  with  the  most  approved  spring  lancets,  you  draw 

'  See  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  4,  p.  6. 


242 


RISE    OF   THE    NEW  WEST 


[1824 


the  last  drop  of  blood  from  our  veins ;  if,  secundum 
artem,  you  draw  the  last  shilling  from  our  pockets, 
what  are  the  checks  of  the  Constitution  to  us?  A 
fig  for  the  Constitution!  When  the  scorpion's  sting 
is  probing  to  the  quick,  shall  we  stop  to  chop  logic  ? 
.  .  .  There  is  no  magic  in  this  word  tmion."  While 
he  threatened  forcible  resistance,  he  rejoiced  in  the 
combination  of  the  shipping  and  commercial  classes 
of  New  England  with  the  south  in  opposition  to  the 
measure.  "The  merchants  and  manufacturers  of 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  the  province  of 
Maine  and  Sagadahock,"  said  he,  "repel  this  bill, 
whilst  men  in  hunting-shirts,  with  deer-skin  leggings 
and  moccasins  on  their  feet,  want  protection  for 
manufactures." 

The  bill  passed  the  House  of  Representatives  on 
April  16,  1824,  by  the  close  vote  of  107  to  102,  and 
subsequently  passed  the  Senate  by  a  small  majority : 


New  England 

Middle  Region 

South 

I 

2, 

I 

<: 
5 

I 

?3 
2 

9 

a 
a 

5 

H 
0 

23 

26 

8 

z 

6 
0 

24 

I 

0 

I 
0 

E. 

57 
9 

p. 

3 
6 

I 
21 

2; 

p 

0 
13 

P 
0 

9 

0 
7 

Ayes  .... 

4 

Nays .... 

6 

5 

0 

II 

0 

I 

56 

Northwest  and  Kentucky 

Southwest 

0 

3- 
0" 

a* 

p. 

►-4 

0 

-< 

0 

a 
3 

2 
7 

? 
0 
3 

0 

I 

0 
3 

E. 

Total 

Ayes 

14 
0 

2 
0 

I 
0 

I 
0 

11 
0 

29 

2 

107 

Nays  .... 

0 

14 

102 

1824]  THE   TARIFF  243 

By  this  analysis  and  the  map,  it  is  clear  that  the 
navigating  states  were  in  opposition,  while  the  man- 
ufacturing states  were  generally  in  favor  of  the 
bill.  The  most  important  textile  manufacturers 
of  Massachusetts,  however,  were  not  advocates 
of  protection  at  this  time.  The  grain  and  wool 
producing  states  gave  an  overwhelming  vote  (91 
to  9)  in  favor  of  the  attempt  to  provide  a  home 
market.  The  planting  states  gave  but  3  votes  in 
favor  to  64  against.^  By  comparison  with  the  map 
of  the  general  survey  bill,  it  is  seen  that  the  south- 
ern half  of  the  west  was  in  a  state  of  unstable 
equilibrium  on  these  sectional  issues.  It  joined  the 
Ohio  Valley  and  the  middle  states  in  supporting  a 
system  of  internal  improvements,  while  it  trans- 
ferred its  support  to  the  old  south  on  the  question 
of  the  tariff.  New  England,  on  the  other  hand, 
although  divided,  tended  to  unite  its  strength  with 
that  of  the  south  on  both  these  measures.  In  gen- 
eral, the  map  reveals  the  process  of  forming  a 
northern  section  in  opposition  to  the  south  —  the 
union  of  the  Ohio  Valley  with  the  middle  states 
against  the  alliance  of  the  south  Atlantic  seaboard 
with  the  Gulf  states.  The  division  of  forces  ex- 
hibited in  the  Missouri  struggle  was  strikingly  like 
the  division  now  revealed  on  the  tariff  question. 

On  the  whole,  the  tariff  of  1824  was  distinctly  a 
compromise  measure.  Although  the  ad  valorem 
duties  on  cotton  and  woollen  goods  were   raised, 

*  See  the  analysis  in  Niles'  Register,  XXVI.,  113. 


244  RISE    OF    THE    NEW   WEST  [1824 

this  was  balanced  by  the  doubled  duty  on  raw 
wool.  Nevertheless,  it  aroused  the  opposition  of 
the  entire  planting  section,  at  the  same  time  that 
the  manufacturers  of  woollen  goods  felt  that  their 
interests  had  been  sacrificed.  The  tariff  question 
was,  in  fact,  only  postponed.  In  the  history  of 
party  development,  however.  Clay's  system  of  in- 
ternal improvements  and  tariff,  as  shown  in  this 
session  of  Congress,  had  a  significance  not  easily 
missed ;  and  state  sovereignty  sentiment  in  the  south 
grew  steadily  after  these  measures.* 

'  See  chapter  xviii,  below;  c£.  Aiiies,  5 tale  Docs,  on  Fedenil 
Relations,  No.  4,  pp.  4-12. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   ELECTION  OF   1824 
(1822-1825) 

AS  we  have  seen/  the  dissensions  in  Monroe's 
L  cabinet  approached  the  point  of  rupture  by  the 
spring  and  summer  of  1822,  when  the  spectacle  was 
presented  of  the  friends  of  the  secretary  of  the  treas- 
ury making  war  upon  the  measures  of  the  secretary 
of  war,  and  even  antagonizing  the  president  himself. 
Crawford's  followers  gained  the  name  of  the  "radi- 
cals," and  declared  as  their  principles,  democracy, 
economy,  and  reform.^  Professing  to  represent  the 
pure  Jeffersonian  republicanism  of  the  "Revolution 
of  1800,"  they  appealed  to  the  adherents  of  the  Vir- 
ginia school  of  politics  for  support.^  Jefferson,  al- 
though refusing  to  come  out  openly,  was  clearly  in 
sympathy  with  Crawford's  candidacy:  he  believed 
that  the  old  parties  still  continued,  although  under 
different  names,  and  that  the  issue  would  finally  be 
reduced  to  a  contest  between  a  northern  and  a 
southern  candidate. 

*  See  above,  chap.  x. 

^  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,   56;   Mass.   Hist.   Soc,   Proceedings, 
XIX.,  40.  ^  Edwards,  Illinois,  489. 


246  RISE    OF   THE    NEW  WEST  [1823 

"You  see,"  said  he,  in  a  letter  to  Gallatin,  "many 
calling  themselves  Republicans  and  preaching  the 
rankest  doctrine  of  the  old  Federalists.  One  of  the 
prominent  candidates  [Adams]  is  presumed  to  be  of 
this  party ;  the  other  [Crawford]  a  Republican  of  the 
old  school,  and  a  friend  to  the  barrier  of  state  rights, 
as  provided  by  the  Constitution  against  the  danger 
of  consolidation."  *  Pennsylvania  and  New  York, 
he  thought,  would  decide  the  question,  and  the  issue 
would  depend  upon  whether  or  not  the  "Missouri 
principle"  became  involved. 

At  this  time  parties  and  principles  were  still  plas- 
tic. This  is  illustrated  by  a  letter  written  in  the 
spring  of  1823  to  Monroe,  by  John  Taylor,  of  Caro- 
line, the  leading  exponent  of  the  orthodox  Virginia 
tenets  of  state  sovereignty.  The  writer  was  evi- 
dently stirred  by  the  recent  publication,  in  Calhoun's 
Washington  organ,  of  a  series  of  letters  signed  A.  B.,^ 
in  which  Crawford  was  denounced  for  corrupt  deal- 
ings with  the  banks,  collusion  with  slave-traders,  and 
intrigues  in  general.  Calhoun  himself  had  just  end- 
ed a  visit  with  Taylor  when  the  latter  wrote,  bitterly 
condemning  the  "example  of  obtaining  the  presi- 
dency by  crafty  intrigues  and  pecuniary  influence," 
as  tending  to  transfer  power  to  a  moneyed  aristoc- 
racy.    Neither  Calhoun  nor  Adams,  in  his  opinion. 


'Jefferson,  Writings  (Ford's  ed.),  X.,  235;  cf.  225-227,  237, 
261,  264.  280. 

^Edwards,  Illinois,  525;  National  Intelligencer,  April  21-23, 
1823;  Am.  State  Paps..  Finance,  V.,  1-145. 


1823]  PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION  247 

was  open  to  this  objection,  and  neither  of  them,  he 
thought,  would  prefer  a  protective  tariff  to  a  navy 
as  a  means  of  national  defence.  While  he  admitted 
his  ignorance  of  Adams's  views  on  the  subject  of 
division  of  power  between  the  federal  and  state  gov- 
ernments, he  declared  that  Calhoun  had  no  advan- 
tage on  this  point,  for  although  the  latter  professed 
to  consider  the  distribution  of  powers  between  the 
states  and  the  central  authority  as  "  a  distinguishing 
pre-eminence  in  our  form  of  government,"  yet,  in 
the  opinion  of  Taylor,  he  destroyed  "this  pre-emi- 
nence by  endowing  the  federal  government  with  a 
supremacy  over  the  state  governments  whenever 
they  come  in  conflict."  This  was  important  testi- 
mony, following  immediately  on  Calhoun's  visit,  and 
coming  from  the  pen  of  a  man  who  was  primarily 
interested  in  the  question. 

In  spite  of  these  objections,  which  would  seem  to 
be  insuperable  from  the  point  of  view  of  this  distin- 
guished expositor  of  state  sovereignty,  Taylor  was 
ready  to  take  the  initiative  in  a  movement  against 
Crawford,  if  Monroe,  Jefferson,  and  Madison  agreed. 
Although  as  between  Calhoun  and  Adams,  he  inti- 
mated that  "the  Missouri  question"  made  a  distinc- 
tion of  considerable  weight,^  he  did  not  press  the 
point.     James  Barbour,  the  other  senator  from  Vir- 

1  Taylor  to  Monroe,  April  29,  1823,  Monroe  Papers,  MSS.  in 
Cong.  Libr.;  cf.  "  Farmer's "  attacks  on  Crawford  as  a  protec- 
tionist, in  Richmond  Enquirer,  noted  in  Niles'  Register,  XXIV., 
306.  See  Calhoun  to  Gouvemeur,  April  28,  1823,  N.  Y.  Publ. 
Libr.,  Bulletin,  1899,  p.  324;  Adams,  Memoirs,  VL,  356. 


248  RISE    OF    THE    NEW   WEST  [1823 

ginia,  also  seriously  thought  of  supporting  Adams,* 
and  it  is  clear  that  the  secretary  of  state  at  this 
time  was  not  regarded  as  unsafe  in  the  Old  Do- 
minion. 

In  the  spring  and  summer  of  1823,  however,  Craw- 
ford seemed  to  be  clearly  in  the  lead.  He  was  sup- 
ported by  a  well-organized  press,  which  took  its  tone 
from  the  Washington  newspapers;  and  until  Cal- 
houn, in  retaliation,  established  a  paper  of  his  own 
to  denounce  Crawford's  management  of  his  depart- 
ment, he  had  effective  control  of  the  most  influential 
organs  of  public  opinion.^  He  was  a  master  of  po- 
litical manipulation;  but  among  his  rivals  were  men 
of  almost  equal  skill  in  this  respect. 

Clay  was  again  chosen  speaker,  on  his  return  to 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  December,  1823,  by 
a  triumphant  majority,  and,  as  the  session  advanced, 
he  and  Calhoun,  with  all  the  arts  of  fascinating  con- 
versation, plied  the  old  and  new  members.  At  this 
critical  period  in  his  campaign,  Crawford  was  over- 
whelmed by  a  stroke  of  paralysis  (September,  1823), 
which  wrecked  his  huge  frame  and  shattered  his 
career.  Shut  in  a  darkened  room,  threatened  with 
blindness  and  the  loss  of  speech,  bled  by  the  doctors 
twenty-three  times  in  three  weeks,  unable  to  sign 
his  official  papers  with  his  own  hand,  he  was  pre- 
vented from   conducting   his   own  political   battle. 

'Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,   242,  450-452;  see  also  Taylor's  in- 
terview with  Adams,  May  26,  1824,  ibid.,  356,  357. 
^  Ibid.,  47,  56,  57,  60,  62-64,  66. 


1823J  PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION  249 

But  he  kept  his  courage  and  his  purpose,  concealing 
his  real  condition  from  all  but  his  most  trusted  in- 
timates. Not  until  April,  1 824,  was  he  able  to  attend 
cabinet  meetings,  and  within  a  month  after  that  he 
suffered  a  relapse,  which  prevented  his  active  par- 
ticipation in  his  duties  until  the  fall.* 

Adams  had  the  New  England  scruples  against 
urging  his  cause  personally,  and  took  the  attitude 
that  the  office  of  president  should  come  from  merit, 
not  from  manipulation.^  Moreover,  he  saw  that  the 
practice  of  soliciting  votes  from  members  of  Con- 
gress would  render  the  executive  subservient  to  that 
body.  Although  his  uncompromising  temper  un- 
fitted him  for  the  tactics  of  political  management, 
he  was  an  adept  in  the  grand  strategy  of  the  contest, 
and  he  noted  every  move  of  his  adversaries.  His 
replies  to  attacks  were  crushing,  for  he  had  the  gift 
of  clear  and  forcible  exposition.^  But  his  greatest 
strength  in  the  presidential  contest  lay  in  the  fact 
that  he  was  the  only  promising  northern  candidate. 

Early  in  the  campaign,  Calhoun  commented  on  the 
fact  that  five  candidates  were  from  the  slave-holding 
states — a  circumstance  which,  in  his  opinion,would 

*  National  Intelligencer,  September  15,  1824;  Life  of  W.  W. 
Seaton,  160;  K.ing,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  539;  Adams, 
Memoirs,  VI.,  130,  270,  275,  356,  357,  387,  428,  435,  439;  Univ. 
of  North  Carolina,  James  Spriint  Hist.  Monographs,  No.  2,  pp. 
69,  71;   Edwards,  Illinois,  492. 

^  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  64,  242,  298,  V.,  89,  129,  298,  525; 
Dwight,  Travels,  I.,  266. 

^  Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  361,  496-535,  VI.,  116-118;  King,  Life 
and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  475;  Gallatin,  Writings,  II.,  246. 


250  RISE    OF    THE    NEW   WEST  [1823 

give  Adams  great  advantages  if  he  knew  how  to  im- 
prove them.'  Naturally,  therefore,  Adams  gained 
the  influential  support  of  Rufus  King,  the  chief 
antagonist  of  the  slave  section.  At  first  decidedly- 
hostile,  King's  final  adhesion  was  given  to  him,  not 
out  of  personal  regard,  but  because  he  believed  that 
the  pubhc  should  be  aroused  against  "longer  sub- 
mission to  a  Southern  Master.  .  .  .  He  is  the  only 
northern  Candidate,  and  as  between  him  and  the 
black  Candidates  I  prefer  him."  ^  Steadily  Adams 
increased  his  following  in  reluctant  New  England.^ 
In  New  York  he  had  an  element  of  strength  in  the 
fact  that  the  population  was  nearly  evenly  divided 
between  the  natives  of  that  state  and  the  settlers 
from  New  England.  Of  the  delegation  from  the 
state  of  New  York  in  the  seventeenth  Congress,  for 
example,  those  who  were  born  in  New  England 
were  about  equal  to  those  born  in  the  state  itself. 
Nearly  forty  per  cent,  of  the  members  of  the  New 
York  constitutional  convention  of  182 1  were  bom 
in  New  England.^  The  adhesion  of  ex-Speaker 
Taylor,  another  of  the  champions  of  restriction  in 
the  Missouri  struggle,  furnished  an  able  manager  in 
New  York. 

Even  the  attitude  of  Van  Buren  was  for  a  time  in 

'  Edwards,  Illinois,  492. 

'  King,  Lije  and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  508,  510. 

^  Niles'  Register,  XXIIl.,  322,  342;  Clay,  Private  Corresp., 
98;  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  235. 

*  King,  Lije  and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  413;  Carter  and  Stone, 
Reports  of  New  York  Convention,  637;  Force,  Calendar  (1823). 


i824]  PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION  251 

doubt,  for  he  would  gladly  have  retired  from  politics 
to  accept  a  place  on  the  bench  of  the  supreme  court 
of  the  United  States;  but  Adams  and  King  pressed 
his  candidacy  for  this  position  in  vain  upon  the 
president,  and  Van  Buren  finally  gave  his  full  sup- 
port to  Crawford/ 

So  little  did  Adams  appreciate  the  popular  move- 
ment that  was  gathering  about  Jackson's  name,  that 
he  advised  his  followers  to  support  the  "Old  Hero" 
for  the  vice- presidency,  "  a  station  in  which  the  Gen- 
eral could  hang  no  one,  and  in  which  he  would  need 
to  quarrel  with  no  one.  His  name  and  character 
would  serve  to  restore  the  forgotten  dignity  of  the 
place,  and  it  would  afford  an  easy  and  dignified  re- 
tirement to  his  old  age."  ^  In  January,  1824,  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  victory  of  New  Orleans,  Adams 
gave  a  great  ball,  attended  by  over  a  thousand  peo- 
ple, in  honor  of  his  rival. ^ 

After  Jackson's  return  from  the  governorship  of 
Florida,  in  182 1,  his  star  steadily  rose  in  the  political 
horizon.  His  canvass  was  conducted  by  his  neigh- 
bor. Major  Lewis,  who  was  one  of  the  most  astute 
politicians  in  American  history,  able  subtly  to  influ- 
ence the  attitude  of  his  volcanic  candidate  and  to 
touch  the  springs  of  political  management.     On  July 

*  King,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  512-517,  520-527; 
Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  168,  173;  Crawford  to  Van  Buren,  August 
I,  1823,  Van  Buren  Papers  (MSS.) ;  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report 
1904,  p.  178. 

*  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  333. 

'  Ibid.,  229;  Sargent,  Public  Men  and  Events,  I.,  48-51. 


252  RISE    OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1822 

20,  1822,  the  legislature  of  Tennessee  formally  nom- 
inated the  general  for  the  presidency.* 

This  gave  the  signal  of  revolt  by  the  states  against 
the  congressional  caucus.  Clay  rallied  his  own 
forces,  and  in  1822  and  1823  was  nominated^  by  mem- 
bers of  the  legislatures  of  Missouri,  Kentucky,  Ohio, 
and  Louisiana.^  Alabama  nominated  Jackson;  and 
]\Iississippi,  by  a  tie  vote,  proposed  both  Adams  and 
Jackson.^  These  nominations  by  states  showed  that, 
however  the  west  might  be  divided,  it  was  a  unit  in 
resistance  to  the  selection  of  a  president  by  a  com- 
bination of  congressmen.  It  was  believed  that  the 
spirit  of  the  Constitution  was  violated  by  this  method, 
which  made  the  executive  depend  on  the  legislative 
body  for  nomination ;  and  that  a  minority  candidate 
might  win  by  the  caucus.  This  became  the  rallying 
cry  of  Jackson,  whose  canvass  was  conducted  on  the 
issue  of  the  right  of  the  people  to  select  their  presi- 
dent i'^  and  the  prevalent  discontent  and  industrial 
depression  made  the  voters  responsive  to  this  idea. 
The  movement  was  one  of  permanent  significance  in 
American  history,  for  it  represented  the  growth  of 
democracy,  and  led  the  way  to  the  institution  of  the 
national  nominating  convention. 

*  Parton,  Jackson,  III.,  20;  Niles'  Register,  XXII.,  402. 

^  Niles'  Register,  XXIII.,  245,  342;  Ohio  Monitor,  January  4, 
1823;  National  Republican  (Cincinnati) ,  January  14,1823;  King, 
Lije  and  Corresp.,  VI.,  487;  Clay,  Private  Corresp.,  70. 

^National  Intelligencer,  April   12,    1823;  Ky.  Reporter,  April 

21,  1823.  ''  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  68. 

*  Sargent,  Public  Men  and  Events,  I.,  57;  Parton,  Jackson, 
III.,  17,  40,  41. 


i824l  PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION  253 

In  the  fall  of  1823,  Tennessee  returned  Jackson  to 
the  Senate,  having  chosen  him  over  one  of  the  prom- 
inent leaders  of  the  Crawford  party,  and,  shortly 
afterwards,  the  legislature  sent  to  the  other  states 
a  vigorous  resolution,  asking  them  to  unite  in  put- 
ting down  the  congressional  caucus/  In  Virginia 
and  many  other  states  the  Tennessee  resolutions 
gave  rise  to  agitation  which  strengthened  the  pop- 
ular feeling  against  congressional  dictation.^  Al- 
though Adams  at  first  considered  the  congressional 
caucus  as  one  of  the  "  least  obnoxious  modes  of  in- 
trigue," he  also  finally  threw  his  influence  against 
the  system  and  announced  that  he  would  not  accept 
a  nomination  by  that  body.^ 

Realizing  that,  in  spite  of  his  illness,  Crawford 
could  command  the  largest  following  in  Congress, 
the  friends  of  all  the  other  candidates  united  their 
forces  in  an  effort  to  prevent  the  meeting  of  the 
caucus.  Already  it  was  evident  to  the  Georgian's 
supporters  that  the  only  thing  that  could  bring  him 
the  victory  was  insistence  upon  party  unity  and  dis- 
cipline, and  on  February  14,  1824,  sixty-six  of  the 
two  hundred  and  sixteen  Democrats  in  Congress 
gathered  for  the  last  congressional  caucus  which 
nominated  a  president.  That  these  were  practically 
all  Crawford  men  was  shown  by  his  nomination  with 

*  Parton,  Jackson,  IIL,  21;  Niles'  Register,  XXV.,  114,  137, 
197,  292;  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  60;  Tyler,  Tylers,  I.,  341; 
Richmond  Enquirer,  January  i,  6,  13,  1824. 

^McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  60-62,  64;  Dalliuger,  Nomina- 
tions, 19  n.,  54.  'Adams,  Memoirs,  VL,  191,  236. 


254  RISE   OF    THE    NEW   WEST  [1824 

only  four  opposing  votes/  Gallatin  had  been  per- 
suaded to  return  from  Paris,  and  he  received  the 
nomination  for  vice-president,  in  order  to  hold  the 
state  of  Pennsylvania  in  Crawford's  column;  but 
it  proved  a  forlorn  hope,  for  this  old  companion-in- 
arms of  Jefferson  found  Pennsylvania  "Jackson  mad." 
Calhoun,  seeing  that  he  had  lost  the  northern 
state  on  which  he  had  founded  his  hopes  of  success, 
and  despairing  of  making  inroads  upon  Crawford's 
southern  forces  after  the  congressional  caucus,  sought 
his  political  fortunes  in  an  alliance  with  his  rival. ^ 
The  result  was  that,  in  a  state  nominating  conven- 
tion held  at  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania  (March  4, 
1824),  Jackson  was  almost  unanimously  nominated 
by  that  state  for  president,  and  Calhoun  was  named 
for  the  vice-presidency.  In  vain  the  managers  of 
Crawford  sought  to  throw  discredit  upon  Jackson 
by  the  publication  of  his  correspondence  with  Mon- 
roe, in  which  he  had  pleaded  for  recognition  of  the 
Federalists;^  the  letters  added  to  his  strength,  and 
finally  Gallatin  was  induced  to  withdraw  from  the 
unequal  contest,  in  order  that  an  attempt  might  be 
made  to  persuade  Henry  Clay  to  accept  the  vice- 
presidency  under  Crawford.'' 

'  DalHnger,  Nominations,  19;  Niks'  Register,  XXV.,  388-392, 
403;  Hammond,  Pol.  Hist,  of  N.  Y.,  II.,  149;  McMaster,  United 
States,  v.,  64;  Life  of  W.  W.  Seaton,  173;  Annals  of  Cong.,  18 
Cong.,  I  Sess.,  I.,  358.  ^  Clay,  Private  Corresp.,  87. 

'  Parton,  Jackson,  II.,  357,  III.,  20;  Monroe,  Writings. 

*  Gallatin,  Works,  II.,  297-300;  Adams,  Life  of  Gallatin,  604; 
Clay,  Private  Corresp.,  100-103;  Sargent,  Public  Men  and 
Events,  I.,  57. 


i824]  PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION  255 

The  conflict  was  not  entirely  a  matter  of  personal 
politics.  Jackson  had  raised  the  popular  movement 
against  the  congressional  caucus  into  a  distinct  issue 
— the  right  of  the  people  to  choose  their  own  presi- 
dent. Clay's  "American  system"  of  internal  im- 
provements and  the  protective  tariff  furnished  others. 
We  have  seen  that  these  subjects  were  hotly  debated 
in  Congress  during  the  spring  months  of  1824.  As 
the  pre-eminent  champion  of  these  interests,  Clay 
had  a  large  following  in  the  states  of  the  Ohio  Val- 
ley, as  well  as  in  New  York  The  early  popularity  of 
Calhoun  in  Pennsylvania  was  also  due,  in  part,  to 
his  record  as  a  friend  of  tariff  and  internal  improve- 
ments. Upon  that  subject,  on  July  3,  1824,  he  gave 
an  exposition  of  his  constitutional  principles  to  Gar- 
nett,  of  Virginia,  in  which  he  showed  some  tendency 
to  moderate  his  position.*  When  interrogated  upon 
his  views  in  respect  to  the  tariff,  Jackson  replied,  in 
a  letter  to  Coleman,  avowing  himself  a  moderate 
protectionist  and  a  supporter  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
promotion  of  manufactures  in  order  to  create  a  home 
market ;  and  in  the  Senate  he  voted  for  the  tariff  of 
1824,  and  in  favor  of  internal  improvements.^  Craw- 
ford was  embarrassed  by  the  need  of  reconciling  his 
southern  support  with  his  following  in  the  middle 
states  upon  these  subjects.  While  his  treasury  re- 
ports indicated  a  preference  for  a  revenue  tariff,  they 

*  Houston,  Nullification  in  S.  C,  143. 

^Parton,  Jackson,  III.,  34,  35;  Niles'  Register,  XXVI.,  245; 
Wheeler,  Hist,  of  Cong.,  II.,  231. 


256  RISE    OF    THE    NEW  WEST  [1824 

were  sufficiently  ambiguous  to  create  opposition  in 
the  south  and  a  loss  of  support  in  the  north.  The 
issue  of  internal  improvements  he  evaded  by  profess- 
ing himself  in  favor  of  a  constitutional  amendment, 
for  which  he  tried  in  vain  to  secure  the  support  of 
his  friends  in  the  Georgia  legislature.^ 

Adams  announced  that  his  policy  with  reference  to 
the  opposing  interests  of  the  country  was  "  concilia- 
tion, not  collision'';  but  he  declared  that  there  was 
no  constitutional  question  involved,  either  in  the  tar- 
iff or  in  internal  improvements,^  and  he  was  frankly 
in  favor  of  the  latter,  while  he  professed  himself  sat- 
isfied with  the  tariff  of  1824,  as  a  reasonable  compro- 
mise between  the  conflicting  interests.  If  changed 
at  all,  he  believed  that  the  tariff  should  be  reduced. 
An  attempt  was  made  to  bring  him  into  disrepute  in 
the  south  for  his  negotiation  of  a  convention  in  1824 
with  England  for  the  international  regulation  of  the 
slave-trade.  This  subject  had  been  forced  upon  his 
reluctant  attention  early  in  his  career  as  secretary 
of  state.  While  he  was  willing  to  join  in  declaring 
that  traffic  piracy,  he  was  very  proud  of  his  record 
as  a  steadfast  opponent  of  the  right  of  search  in  any 
form.  It  was  too  valuable  political  capital  to  be 
given  up,  even  if  he  had  not  espoused  the  cause  with 
all  his  energy.  To  all  propositions,  therefore,  for 
conceding  the  right  of  search  of  suspected  slavers, 

*  King,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King,  VI.,  496,  500;  Niles'  Regis- 
ter, XXIV,  306;  Gilmer,  Sketclies,  294. 

2  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  353,  451;  cf.  343. 


i824]  PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION  257 

Adams  had  turned  a  deaf  ear,  as  he  did  to  proposals 
of  mixed  courts  to  try  cases  of  capture.  But  in  the 
convention  of  1824,  declaring  the  slave-trade  piracy 
under  the  law  of  nations,  he  had  offered  to  concede 
the  right  of  British  vessels  to  cruise  along  our 
coasts  to  intercept  slavers,  and  this  clause  the 
Senate  struck  out,  whereupon  England  refused  to 
ratify  it.* 

On  the  whole,  however,  while  candidates  were 
forced  to  declare  themselves  on  important  ques- 
tions, and  while  there  were  distinct  sectional  group- 
ings in  Congress,  which  revealed  conflicting  interests 
in  economic  policy,  issues  were  not  clearly  drawn  in 
this  campaign.  Indeed,  it  was  difficult  for  any  one 
of  the  candidates  to  stand  on  a  clear-cut  platform 
without  losing  some  of  the  support  essential  to  his 
success.  "  Could  we  hit  upon  a  few  great  principles, 
and  unite  their  support  with  that  of  Crawford," 
wrote  his  friend  Cobb,  shortly  before  the  election, 
"we  could  succeed  beyond  doubt."  ^ 

As  the  year  1824  drew  towards  its  close,  the  heat 
of  the  struggle  was  transferred  to  New  York.  No- 
where was  the  revulsion  of  popular  feeling  against 
caucus  control  more  clearly  manifested  than  in  that 
state.  The  feeling  was  aggravated  by  the  fact  that 
the  Albany  Regency,  under  Van  Buren,  stubbornly 

•  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  321,  338,  345;  Monroe,  Writings,  VII., 
22;  King,  Life  and  Corresp.  of  King,  571,  572;  DuBois,  Slave 
Trade,  139,  140. 

'  Cobb,  Leisure  Labors,  216;  Shepard,  Van  Buren,  92. 


258  RISE    OF   THE    NEW  WEST  [1824 

refused  to  concede  the  popular  demand  for  the  repeal 
of  the  state  law  for  choice  of  presidential  electors  by 
the  legislature.  The  political  machine's  control  of 
the  legislature  insured  New  York's  vote  to  Crawford ; 
but  if  the  choice  were  confided  to  the  people,  no  one 
could  predict  the  result.  Out  of  these  conditions  a 
new  combination  sprang  up  in  New  York,  which  took 
the  name  of  the  "People's  party,"  and  sought  not 
only  to  transfer  the  choice  of  electors  to  the  people, 
but  to  overturn  the  Albany  Regency.  So  rapidly 
did  the  discordant  elements  of  New  York  Clintonians 
and  anti-Clintonians  combine  in  this  party,  that 
Crawford's  managers,  in  an  effort  to  break  the  com- 
bination, introduced  a  resolution  in  the  legislature 
removing  DeWitt  Clinton  from  his  office  of  canal 
commissioner.  The  purpose  was  to  split  the  Peo- 
ple's party  by  compelling  its  members  to  revive  their 
old  antagonisms  by  taking  sides  for  or  against  Clin- 
ton. Although  the  resolution  was  carried  by  a 
decisive  majority,  the  indignity  placed  upon  the 
champion  of  the  Erie  Canal  aroused  popular  resent- 
ment and  increased  the  revolt  against  the  Regency. 
In  September,  1824,  the  People's  party  met  in  a 
state  convention  at  Utica  and  nominated  Clinton  for 
governor.* 

While  this  campaign  (which  resulted  in  an  over- 

*  On  the  New  York  campaign,  see  Rammelkamp,  Am,  Hist. 
Assoc.,  Report  1904,  p.  177;  Hammond,  Pol,  Hist,  of  N.  Y.,  II., 
chaps,  xxix.-xxxii.;  Weed,  Autobiography,  chap,  xv.;  McMaster, 
United  States,  V.,  71-73. 


1824]  PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION  259 

whelming  victory  for  the  People's  party)  was  in 
progress,  the  legislature  met  to  choose  electors.  So 
clearly  marked  was  the  trend  of  public  opinion  that 
many  members  broke  away  from  their  allegiance  to 
Crawford.  The  Senate  nominated  electors  favor- 
able to  him,  but  in  the  Assembly  the  Adams  men 
predominated,  although  they  were  not  in  a  majority. 
After  several  days  of  deadlock,  a  combination  ticket, 
made  up  of  Adams  electors  and  certain  Clay  men 
who  had  been  named  on  the  Senate's  ticket,  was 
suddenly  presented  to  the  Assembly  and  passed,  with 
the  aid  of  Crawford  men,  who  thought  that  if  the 
matter  could  be  brought  to  a  joint  ballot  they  could 
then  win  and  exclude  Clay  from  the  contest.  But 
the  Adams  men  had  conciliated  the  supporters  of 
Clay  by  guaranteeing  to  them  five  electoral  votes, 
which  were  expected,  if  the  ultimate  choice  of  the 
president  should  come  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, to  make  Clay  one  of  the  three  candidates  be- 
fore that  body.^  The  Clay  following,  therefore,  sup- 
ported the  Adams  ticket  on  the  joint  ballot,  with  the 
result  that  Adams  secured  25  electors.  Clay  7,  and 
Crawford  4.  When  the  electoral  college  met  in 
December,  Clay  lost  three  of  his  votes,  so  that 
New  York  finally  gave  26  to  Adams,  5  to  Crawford, 
4  to  Clay,  and  i  to  Jackson.  Thus  the  Adams 
men  had  failed  to  carry  out  their  agreement  with 

'  Clay,  Private  Corresp.,  99,  104,  106;  National  Intelligencer, 
September  15,  1824;  Van  Buren  to  Crawford,  November  17, 
1824;  Van  Buren  Papers  (Cong.  Libr.). 


26o  RISE   OF   THE   NEW  WEST  [1824 

the  followers  of  Clay;  had  not  these  three  Clay 
votes  been  withdrawn  he  would  have  tied  Crawford 
for  third  place.  Louisiana,  although  New  York's 
electoral  college  voted  in  ignorance  of  the  fact,  had 
already  deserted  Clay.^  The  choice  of  electors  in 
Louisiana  was  made  by  the  legislature,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  several  Clay  men,  and  the  combined  Jack- 
son and  Adams  ticket  received  a  majority  of  only 
two  votes  over  Clay.*  Thus  vanished  the  latter 's 
hopes  of  becoming  one  of  the  three  candidates  to  be 
voted  on  by  the  House  of  Representatives. 

In  the  country  as  a  whole,  Jackson  received 
99  electoral  votes,  Adams  84,  Crawford  41,  and  Clay 
37.  For  the  vice-presidency,  Calhoun  was  chosen 
by  a  vote  of  182,  while  Sanford,  of  New  York, 
received  the  vote  of  Ohio,  together  with  a  portion 
of  that  of  Kentucky  and  New  York ;  Virginia  voted 
for  Macon,  of  North  Carolina  ;  Georgia  for  Van 
Buren ;  and  scattering  votes  were  given  for  Jackson 
and  Clay.  No  presidential  candidate  had  a  ma- 
jority, and,  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution,  the 
House  of  Representatives  was  to  decide  between  the 
three  highest  candidates. 

To  Clay,  powerful  in  Congress,  fell  the  bitter 
honor  of  deciding  between  his  rivals.  Jackson  had 
a  decisive  plurality  of  the  electoral  vote,  and  even 

^  N.  y.  >l>Mmca«,  December  3,  1824;  A^.  Y.  Com.  Adv.,  De- 
cember 14,  1824;  Weed,  Autobiography,  128,  is  in  error;  L.  E. 
Aylsworth,  Clay  in  Elec.  of  1824  (MS.  thesis). 

'Sargent,  Public  Men  and  Events,  I.,  67;  Niles'  Register, 
XXVII.,  257;  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  446. 


1825]  PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION  261 

the  Kentucky  legislature,  under  the  dominance  of 
the  "relief  party,"  urged  the  representatives  from 
that  state  to  cast  their  vote  in  his  favor. ^  But 
although  Jackson  was  popular  in  the  west,  Clay 
had  long  been  hostile  to  the  candidacy  of  this  mili- 
tary chieftain,  and  could  not  well  alter  his  opinion. 
Moreover,  Clay'^  presidential  ambitions  stood  in 
the  way  of  this  choice.  It  would  not  have  been 
easy  for  him  to  become  Jackson's  successor,  both 
because  of  the  difficulty  of  electing  two  successive 
candidates  from  the  west  and  because  Calhoun 
had  already  anticipated  him  in  the  alliance.  With 
Crawford,  he  was  on  better  terms;  but  that  candi- 
date was  clearly  in  the  minority,  his  health  was 
gravely  impaired,  and  his  following  was  made  up 
largely  of  the  opponents  of  the  policies  which  Clay 
represented.^ 

He  determined,  therefore,  to  use  his  influence  in 
behalf  of  Adams — the  rival  who  had  borne  away 
from  him  the  secretaryship  of  state  and  whose  for- 
eign pohcy  had  been  the  target  of  his  most  persist- 
ent attacks.  On  the  other  hand,  the  recognition  of 
the  Spanish-American  republics  and  the  announce- 
ment of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  had  made  Adams  in 
a  sense  the  heir  of  Clay's  own  foreign  policy,  and, 
in  the  matter  of  tariff  and  internal  improvements, 
Adams  was  far  more  in  accord  with  him  than  was 
Crawford. 

'  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  446. 

^Ibid.,  VII.,  4;  Niles'  Register,  XXVII.,  386. 


262  RISE    OF   THE    NEW  WEST  [1825 

As  the  day  approached  on  which  the  House  was 
to  make  its  choice,  friends  of  Clay,  including  his 
"messmate,"  Letcher,  of  Kentucky,  sought  Adams 
to  convey  to  him  the  friendly  attitude  of  Clay  and 
their  hope  that  their  chieftain  might  serve  himself 
by  supporting  Adams.*  They  made  it  perfectly 
clear  that  by  this  they  intended  to  suggest  for  Clay 
a  membership  in  his  cabinet.  Without  giving  ex- 
plicit promises,  Adams  made  it  equally  clear  to  these 
visitors  that,  if  he  were  chosen  by  the  votes  of  west- 
em  delegations,  he  should  naturally  look  to  the  west 
for  much  of  the  support  that  he  should  need.  In 
short,  Adams's  diary,  like  a  book  of  judgment,  shows 
that  he  walked  perilously,  if  safely,  along  the  edge 
of  his  conscience  at  this  time.  ' 'Incedo  super  tgnes,"  ^ 
he  wrote — "I  walk  over  fires."  But  his  diary  re- 
cords no  vulgar  bargaining  with  Clay,  although  he 
talked  over  with  him  the  general  principles  which  he 
would  follow  in  his  administration. 

The  adhesion  of  Clay  by  no  means  assured  Adams's 
election:  the  result  was  not  fully  certain  until  the 
actual  vote  was  given.  Missouri  and  Illinois  were 
long  in  doubt,'  and  in  the  case  of  both  of  these 
states  the  vote  was  cast  by  a  single  person.  Cook, 
of  Illinois,  was  a  personal  friend  of  Adams,  and,  al- 
though the  plurality  of  the  electoral  vote  of  that 
state  had  been  in  favor  of  Jackson,  Cook,  giving  a 
strained  interpretation  of  his  pre-election  promises  to 

»  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  447,  457,  473-475. 
^  Ibid.,  453.  'Ibid.,  469. 


i82s]  PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION  263 

follow  the  will  of  his  constituency,  cast  his  vote  in 
favor  of  Adams.*  With  Scott,  of  Missouri,  Adams 
made  his  peace  in  an  interview  wherein  he  gave  him 
assurances  with  respect  to  newspaper  patronage  and 
the  retention  of  his  brother,  a  judge  in  Arkansas  ter- 
ritory, who  was  threatened  with  the  loss  of  his  office 
because  he  had  killed  his  colleague  in  a  duel.  He 
also  secured  the  vote  of  Louisiana,  by  the  one  dele- 
gate who  held  the  balance  of  power;  and  he  won 
the  Maryland  member  who  had  its  decisive  vote,  by 
the  statement  given  through  Webster,  that  his  ad- 
ministration would  not  proscribe  the  Federalists.^ 
Friends  of  all  the  other  candidates  were  busy  in 
proposing  combinations  and  making  promises  which 
cannot  be  traced  to  their  principals.^ 

When  the  vote  was  taken,  Adams  was  found  to 
have  thirteen  states,  Jackson  seven,  and  Crawford 
four.^  Adams  controlled  New  England,  New  York, 
and  the  Ohio  Valley,  with  the  exception  of  Indiana,  to- 
gether with  Maryland,  Missouri,  and  Louisiana.  The 
grouping  of  the  Jackson  vote  showed  a  union  of  the 
states  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  with  South 
Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  the  cotton  states  of  the 
southwest.  The  Crawford  territory  included  Geor- 
gia, North  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  Delaware.     Van 

'Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  443,  473,  476,  495;  Edwards,  Illinois, 
261-265. 

2  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  492,  499;  Webster,  Writings  (National 
ed.),XVII.,  378. 

'  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  476,  495,  513;  Clay,  Private  Corresp., 
109,  iii;  Parton,  Jackson,  III.,  56.  ♦  See  map. 


264  RISE    OF    THE    NEW   WEST  [1825 

Buren  had  received  the  electoral  vote  of  Georgia  for 
the  vice-presidency,  and  he  still  exercised  a  powerful 
influence  in  New  York.  Adams  had  to  face,  there- 
fore, the  possibility  of  a  union  between  two  of  the 
ablest  politicians  in  the  nation,  Calhoun  and  Van 
Buren,  both  of  whom  saw  that  their  political  fort- 
unes were  involved  in  the  triumph  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son; and  Jackson's  popularity  was  extraordinary 
even  in  the  western  states  which  voted  for  Adams. 
Even  as  he  saw  victory  approaching,  the  New  Eng- 
land leader  was  filled  with  gloomy  forebodings  over 
the  prospects.  "They  are  flattering  for  the  imme- 
diate issue,"  he  recorded  in  his  diary,  "but  the 
fearful  condition  of  them  is  that  success  would  open 
to  a  far  severer  trial  than  defeat." 


CHAPTER   XVI 

PRESIDENT  ADAMS  AND  THE   OPPOSITION 
(1825-1827) 

FOR  eight  years  President  Monroe  had  adminis- 
tered the  executive  department  of  the  federal 
government — years  that  have  been  called  the  "  Era 
of  Good  Feeling."  The  reader  who  has  followed  the 
evidences  of  factional  controversy  among  the  rival 
presidential  candidates  in  the  cabinet,  and  noted  the 
wide-spread  distress  following  the  panic  of  18 19,  the 
growing  sectional  jealousies,  the  first  skirmishes  in 
the  slavery  struggle,  and  the  clamor  of  a  democracy 
eager  to  assert  its  control  and  profoundly  distrustful 
of  the  reigning  political  powers,  will  question  the 
reality  of  this  good  feeling.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
spite  of  temporary  reverses,  the  nation  as  a  whole 
was  bounding  with  vigor  in  these  years  of  peace  after 
war ;  and  if  in  truth  party  was  not  dead,  and  a  golden 
age  had  not  yet  been  given  to  the  American  people, 
at  least  the  heat  of  formal  party  contest  had  been  for 
a  time  allayed.  The  bitterness  of  political  warfare 
in  the  four  years  which  we  are  next  to  consider  might 
well  make  the  administration  of  the  last  of  the  Vir- 
ginia dynasty  seem  peaceful  and  happy  by  contrast. 


266  RISE   OF   THE   NEW  WEST  [1825 

Monroe's  presidential  career  descended  to  a  close 
in  a  mellow  sunset  of  personal  approval,  despite  the 
angry  clouds  that  gathered  on  the  horizon.  He  had 
grown  in  wisdom  by  his  experiences,  and,  although 
not  a  genius,  he  had  shown  himself  able,  by  patient 
and  dispassionate  investigation,  to  reach  judgments 
of  greater  value  than  those  of  more  brilliant  but  less 
safe  statesmen.  Candor,  fair-mindedness,  and  mag- 
nanimity were  attributed  to  him  even  by  those  who 
were  engaged  in  bitter  rivalry  for  the  office  which  he 
now  laid  down.  He  was  not  rapid  or  inflexible  in  his 
decisions  between  the  conflicting  views  of  his  official 
family;  but  in  the  last  resort  he  chose  between 
policies,  accepted  responsibility,  and  steered  the  ship 
of  state  between  the  shoals  and  reefs  that  underlay 
the  apparently  placid  sea  of  the  "  Era  of  Good  Feel- 
ing." How  useful  were  his  services  in  these  tran- 
sitional years  appeared  as  soon  as  John  Quincy 
Adams  grasped,  with  incautious  hands,  the  helm 
which  Monroe  relinquished.* 

"Less  possessed  of  your  confidence  in  advance 
than  any  of  my  predecessors,"  wrote  President 
Adams,  in  his  first  annual  message,  "I  am  deeply 
conscious  of  the  prospect  that  I  shall  stand  more 
and  oftener  in  need  of  your  indulgence."  In  his 
reply  to  the  notification  of  his  election  by  the  House, 
after  adverting  to  the  fact  that  one  of  his  competitors 

*  On  Monroe's  personal  traits,  see  Adams,  Memoirs,  IV.,  240 
et  passim;  J.  Q.  Adams,  Eulogy  on  the  Life  and  Character  of 
James  Monroe;  Schonler,  United  States,  IV.,  201-207. 


1825]  OPPOSITION   TO   ADAMS  267 

had  received  a  larger  minority  of  the  electoral  vote 
than  his  own,  he  declared  that,  if  his  refusal  of  the 
office  would  enable  the  people  authoritatively  to  ex- 
press their  choice,  he  should  not  hesitate  to  decline ;  * 
he  believed  that  perhaps  two-thirds  of  the  people 
were  adverse  to  the  result  of  the  election.^ 

In  truth,  the  position  of  the  new  president  was  a 
delicate  one,  and  he  was  destined  neither  to  obtain 
the  indulgence  asked  nor  the  popular  ratification 
which  he  craved.  By  receiving  his  office  from  the 
hands  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  competi- 
tion with  a  candidate  who  had  a  larger  electoral  vote, 
he  fell  heir  to  the  popular  opposition  which  had  been 
aroused  against  congressional  intrigue,  and  especially 
against  the  selection  of  the  president  by  the  congres- 
sional caucus.  More  than  this,  it  was  charged  that 
Clay's  support  was  the  result  of  a  corrupt  bargain, 
by  which  the  Kentucky  leader  was  promised  the 
office  of  secretary  of  state.  This  accusation  was  first 
publicly  made  by  an  obscure  Pennsylvania  member, 
George  Kremer,  who,  in  an  unsigned  communication 
to  a  newspaper,  when  Clay's  decision  to  vote  for 
Adams  was  first  given  out,  reported  that  overtures 
were  said  to  have  been  made  by  the  friends  of  Adams 
to  the  friends  of  Clay,  offering  him  the  appointment 
of  secretary  of  state  for  his  aid  to  elect  Adams ;  and 
that  the  friends  of  Clay  gave  this  information  to  the 
friends  of  Jackson,  hinting  that  for  the  same  price 

•  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers,  II.,  293. 
2  Adams,  Memoirs,  VII.,  98;  cf.  ibid.,  VI.,  481. 


268  RISE    OF   THE    NEW  WEST  [1825 

they  would  close  with  the  Tennesseean.  When  these 
overtures,  said  the  writer,  were  rejected,  Clay  trans- 
ferred his  interest  to  Adams. ^ 

Stung  to  the  quick,  Clay  rushed  into  print  with 
a  denunciation  of  the  writer  as  a  dastard  and  a  liar, 
and  held  him  responsible  to  the  laws  which  govern 
men  of  honor. ^  In  reply  to  this  evident  invitation  to 
a  duel,  Kremer  avowed  his  authorship  and  his  readi- 
ness to  prove  his  charges.  If  Clay  had  known  the 
identity  of  his  traducer,  he  would  hardly  have  sum- 
moned him  to  the  field  of  honor,  for  Kremer  was  a 
well-meaning  but  credulous  and  thick-headed  rustic 
noted  solely  for  his  leopard -skin  overcoat.  The 
speaker,  therefore,  abandoned  his  first  idea,  and 
asked  of  the  House  an  investigation  of  the  charges, 
which  Kremer  reiterated  his  readiness  to  prove. 
But  when  the  investigating  committee  was  ready  to 
take  testimony,  the  Pennsylvania  congressman  re- 
fused to  appear.  He  was,  in  fact,  the  tool  of  Jack- 
son's managers,  who  greatly  preferred  to  let  the 
scandal  go  unprobed  by  Congress.  If  Clay  trans- 
ferred his  following  to  Adams,  the  charge  would  gain 
credence  with  the  masses ;  if  he  were  not  made  sec- 
retary of  state,  it  would  be  alleged  that  honest 
George  Kremer  had  exposed  the  bargain  and  pre- 
vented its  consummation.  In  vain,  in  two  successive 
and  elaborate  addresses,^  did  Clay  marshal  evidence 

»  Niles'  Register,  XXVII.,  353.  '  Ibid..  355. 

'Address  of  1825  and  of  1827.  in  Clay,  Works  (Colton's  ed.), 
v.,  299,  341. 


1825]  OPPOSITION   TO   ADAMS  269 

that,  before  he  left  Kentucky,  he  had  determined  to 
vote  for  Adams  in  preference  to  Crawford  or  Jack- 
son, and  that  there  was  no  proof  of  Kremer's  charge.* 
In  vain  was  evidence  produced  to  show  that  friends 
of  Jackson^  and  Crawford'  solicited  Clay's  support 
by  even  more  unblushing  offers  of  political  reward 
than  those  alleged  against  Adams.  To  the  end  of 
his  career,  the  charge  remained  a  stumbling-block 
to  Clay's  ambitions,  and  the  more  he  denounced  and 
summoned  witnesses^  the  more  the  scandal  did  its 
poisonous  work. 

After  all,  it  was  Adams  who  gave  the  charge  im- 
mortality. Even  if  he  had  appreciated  the  power 
of  public  feeling  he  would  not  have  hesitated.  If 
the  accusation  was  a  challenge  to  the  spirited  Ken- 
tuckian,  it  was  a  call  to  duty  to  the  Puritan.  Two 
days  after  his  election,  Adams,  asking  Monroe's  ad- 
vice about  the  composition  of  the  cabinet,  announced 
that  he  had  already  determined  to  appoint  Clay 
secretary  of  state,  "considering  it  due,"  said  he,  "to 
his  talents  and  services  to  the  western  section  of  the 
Union,  whence  he  comes,  and  to  the  confidence  in 
me  manifested  by  their  delegations."  ^  Clay  spoke 
lightly  of  the  threatened  opposition  as  a  mere  tem- 

'  Clay,  Address  to  the  Public  (1827),  52;  ibid..  Works  (Colton's 
ed.),  IV.,  109;   Adams,  Memoirs,  VII.,  4. 

^  Clay,  Works  (Colton's  ed.),  I.,  chaps,  xvi.,  xvii.;  Parton, 
Jackson,  III.,  56,  110-116. 

^  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  464,  513,  VII.,  91. 

*  See,  for  example,  testimony  of  congressmen,  Niles'  Register, 
XXVIII.,  69,  133,  134,  203;  Address  of  David  Trimble  (1828). 

^  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  508. 


27©  RISE    OF    THE    NEW   WEST  [1825 

porary  ebullition  of  disappointment  at  the  issue  of 
the  election/  and  after  a  short  interval  accepted 
the  appointment.^ 

Up  to  this  time  Jackson  had  kept  his  temper  re- 
markably; but  now  that  Adams  had  called  to  the 
department  of  state  the  man  who  made  him  presi- 
dent, the  man  who  justified  his  choice  by  the  state- 
ment that  Jackson  was  a  "military  chieftain,"  the 
great  deep  of  his  wrath  was  stirred.  Clay  seemed  to 
him  the  "Judas  of  the  West,"  and  he  wTote  a  letter, 
probably  for  publication,  passionately  defending  the 
disinterestedness  of  his  military  services,  calling  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  Clay  had  never  yet  risked 
himself  for  his  country,  and  soothing  himself  in  de- 
feat by  this  consolation:  "  No  midnight  taper  burnt 
by  me;  no  secret  conclaves  were  held;  no  cabals 
entered  into  to  persuade  any  one  to  a  violation  of 
pledges  given  or  of  instructions  received.  By  me  no 
plans  were  concerted  to  impair  the  pure  principles 
of  our  republican  institutions,  nor  to  prostrate  that 
fundamental  maxim,  which  maintains  the  supremacy 
of  the  people's  will."  ' 

On  his  way  back  to  Tennessee,  he  spread  broad- 
cast in  conversation  his  conviction  that  "honest 
George  Kremer"  had  exposed  a  corrupt  bargain  be- 
tween Clay  and  Adams,^  and  to  this  belief  he  stuck 


'  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  509. 

'  For  his  reasons,  see  Clay,  Works  (Colton's  ed.),  IV.,  114,  192. 
'  Niles'  Register,  XXVIII.,  20;  Parton,  Jackson,  III.,  77. 
*  Parton,  Jackson,  III.,  107. 


1825]  OPPOSITION   TO   ADAMS  271 

through  the  rest  of  his  life,  appealing,  when  his  wit- 
nesses failed  him,  to  the  stubborn  fact  of  Clay's  ap- 
pointment.* In  October,  1825,  Tennessee  renomi- 
nated Jackson,  who  accepted,  and  resigned  his  seat 
in  the  Senate,  accompanying  his  action  with  a  plea 
for  a  constitutional  amendment  rendering  congress- 
men ineligible  to  office  during  their  term  of  service 
and  for  two  years  thereafter,  except  in  cases  of  judi- 
cial appointment.  The  purpose  was  evidently  to 
wage  a  new  campaign  to  give  effect  to  "  the  will  of 
the  people."  ^ 

Although  he  realized  that  an  organized  opposition 
would  be  formed,  Adams  sought  to  give  a  non-parti- 
san character  to  his  administration.^  In  spite  of  the 
low  opinion  expressed  in  his  diary  for  the  honesty 
and  political  rectitude  of  the  secretary  of  the  treas- 
ury, he  asked  him  to  retain  his  office,  but  Crawford 
refused.'*  Ascertaining  that  Gallatin  would  also  de- 
cline the  place,^  he  appointed  Richard  Rush,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, then  serving  as  minister  to  England. 
Jackson's  friends  made  it  clear  that  he  would  take 
unkindly  the  offer  of  the  department  of  war,  and 
Adams  gave  that  office  to  James  Barbour,  of  Vir- 
ginia.® He  retained  Southard,  of  New  Jersey,  as 
secretary  of  the  navy,  William  Wirt,  of  Virginia,  as 

'  Parton,  Jackson,  III.,  110-116. 

^  Ibid.,  III.,  95;  Niks'  Register,  XXIX.,  155. 

'  Richardson,  Alessages  and  Papers,  II.,  295-297, 

*  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  506,  508. 

^  Ibid.,  Life  of  Gallatin,  607;  Gallatin,  Writings,  II.,  301. 

'  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  510;  cf.  ibid.,  450. 


272  RISE    OF    THE    NEW   WEST  [1825 

attorney-general,  and  McLean,  of  Ohio,  as  postmas- 
ter-general. The  latter  selection  proved  peculiarly 
unfortunate,  since  it  gave  the  influence  and  the  pat- 
ronage of  the  post-ofhce  to  the  friends  of  Jackson. 
For  the  mission  to  England,  he  first  selected  Clinton, 
and  after  his  refusal  he  persuaded  Rufus  King  to 
take  the  post.*  Since  King's  acceptance  of  the  sena- 
torship  at  the  hands  of  the  Van  Buren  element  in 
New  York,  he  had  been  less  a  representative  of  the 
Federalists  than  in  his  earUer  days ;  but  the  appoint- 
ment met  in  some  measure  the  obligations  which 
Adams  owed  to  supporters  in  that  party. 

Far  from  organizing  party  machinery  and  using 
the  federal  office-holders  as  a  political  engine,  he 
rigidly  refused  to  introduce  rotation  in  office  at  the 
expiration  of  the  term  of  the  incumbent — a  princi- 
ple which  "would  make  the  Government  a  perpetual 
and  unintermitting  scramble  for  office."  ^  He  deter- 
mined to  renominate  every  person  against  whom 
there  was  no  complaint  which  would  have  warranted 
his  removal.  By  this  choice  he  not  only  retained 
many  outworn  and  superfluous  officers  and  thus  fos- 
tered a  bureaucratic  feeling,^  but  he  also  furnished 
to  his  enemies  local  managers  of  the  opposition,  for 
these  office-holders  were,  in  general,  appointees  of 
Crawford,  in  his  own  interest,  or  of  McLean,  in  the 
interest  of  Calhoun  and  Jackson. 

So  rigidly  did  Adams  interpret  his  duty  in  the  mat- 

'  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  523.  ^  Ibid.,  521. 

'  Fish,  Civil  Service,  76-78. 


1825]    V         OPPOSITION   TO   ADAMS  273 

ter  that  only  twelve  removals  altogether  were  made 
during  his  term.'  He  even  retained  the  surveyor 
of  the  port  of  Philadelphia,  whose  negligence  had 
occasioned  the  loss  of  large  sums  of  money  to  the 
government  and  whose  subordinates  were  hostile  to 
Adams.  Under  such  conditions,  the  friends  of  the 
administration  had  to  contend  not  only  against  their 
enemies,  but  against  the  Adams  administration  it- 
self, which  left  its  power  in  the  hands  of  its  enemies 
to  be  wielded  against  its  friends.^  Binns,  the  editor 
of  one  of  the  leading  administration  papers,  in  an 
interview  was  informed  that  the  president  did  not 
intend  to  make  any  removals.  "  I  bowed  respect- 
fully," said  the  editor,  "assuring  the  president  that 
I  had  no  doubt  the  consequence  would  be  that  he 
himself  would  be  removed  so  soon  as  the  term  for 
which  he  had  been  elected  had  expired.  This  inti- 
mation gave  the  president  no  concern."  ^ 

Another  illustration  of  his  tenacity  in  this  matter, 
even  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  Henry  Clay,  was 
his  refusal  to  remove  a  naval  officer  at  New  Orleans 
who  had  made  preparations  for  a  public  demonstra- 
tion to  insult  a  member  of  Congress  who  had  assisted 
in  electing  Adams.  Clay  believed  that  the  adminis- 
tration "  should  avoid,  on  the  one  hand,  political 
persecution,  and,  on  the  other,  an  appearance  of 
pusillanimity. ' '     But  the  president  refused  to  remove 

*  Fish,  Civil  Service,  72. 

'Adams,  Memoirs,  VII.,  163. 

'  Parton,  Jackson,  III.,  92;  Adams,  Memoirs,  VII.,  154. 


274  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST      ^    [1825 

a  man  for  an  intention  not  carried  into  effect,  and 
particulariy  because  he  could  frame  no  general  pol- 
icy applicable  to  this  case  which  would  not  result 
in  a  clean  sweep.  Four-fifths  of  the  custom  officers 
throughout  the  Union,  he  thought,  were  opposed  to 
his  election.  To  depart  in  one  case  from  the  rule 
which  he  had  laid  down  against  removals  would  be 
to  expose  himself  to  demands  from  all  parts  of  the 
country.* 

The  president  who  rejected  these  favorite  instru- 
ments of  political  success  was  unable  to  find  compen- 
sation in  personal  popularity  or  the  graces  of  manner. 
Cold  and  repellent,  he  leaned  backward  in  his  desire 
to  do  the  right,  and  alienated  men  by  his  testy  and 
uncompromising  reception  of  advances.  And  yet 
there  never  was  a  president  more  in  need  of  con- 
ciliating, for  already  the  forces  of  the  opposition 
were  forming.  Even  before  his  election  he  had 
been  warned  that  the  price  of  his  victory  would 
be  an  organized  opposition  to  the  measures  of  the 
administration,^  and  that  Calhoun  and  his  friends 
in  South  Carolina  and  Pennsylvania  would  be  the 
leaders.' 

The  union  of  the  opposition  forces  into  a  party  was 
perfected  slowly,  for  between  Crawford,  Jackson,  and 
Calhoun  there  had  been  sharp  rivalry.     Virginia  by 


•  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  546. 

*  Ibid.,  476,  481,  495,  506,  510. 

'  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report  1899,  II.,  230,  231;  Calhoim,  Works, 
III.,  51;  Sargent,  Public  Men  and  Events,  I.,  106,  109. 


1825]  OPPOSITION   TO   ADAMS  275 

no  means  relished  the  idea  of  the  promotion  of  the 
military  hero ;  and  in  New  York  Jackson  had  been 
sustained  by  Clinton  in  1824  against  Crawford,  the 
candidate  of  Van  Buren.  The  Senate  ratification  of 
the  nomination  of  Clay  (March  7,  1825)  foreshad- 
owed the  alliance  of  southern  interests  with  those 
of  Pennsylvania;^  but  only  fourteen  votes,  including 
that  of  Jackson,  were  mustered  against  him,  while 
among  the  twenty-seven  who  ratified  the  nomination 
was  Van  Buren.  By  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth 
Congress,  in  December,  1825,  however,  the  situation 
might  well  have  convinced  Adams  of  the  need  of 
caution.  Taylor,  the  administration  candidate  for 
speaker,  was  elected  by  a  majority  of  only  five 
against  his  opponents'  combined  vote,  and,  in  the 
Senate,  Calhoun  appointed  committees  unfriendly  to 
the  president. 

Nevertheless,  in  his  first  annual  message  ^  Adams 
challenged  his  critics  by  avowing  the  boldest  doc- 
trines of  loose  construction.  The  tide  of  sentiment 
in  favor  of  internal  improvements  was  so  strong^ 
that,  to  insure  its  complete  success,  it  would  have 
been  necessary  only  for  the  executive  to  cease  to 
interpose  the  checks  which  Monroe  had  placed 
upon  this  movement.  Prudence  would  have  dic- 
tated to  a  president  anxious  to  enlarge  his  follow- 
ing the  avoidance  of  irritating  utterances  upon  this 

•  Adams,  Memoirs,  VI.,  525,  VII.,  69. 

*  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers,  II.,  299. 
'  JefiEerson,  Writings  (Ford's  ed.),  X.,  348. 


276  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1824 

point.  But  Adams  characteristically  threw  away 
his  opportunity,  choosing  rather  to  make  extreme 
proposals  which  he  realized  had  slight  chance  of 
success,  and  to  state  broad  principles  of  national 
power. 

In  this  respect  he  went  even  further  than  Clay  ap- 
proved.* Defining  the  object  of  civil  government  as 
the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  those  over  whom 
it  is  established,  not  only  did  he  urge  the  construc- 
tion of  roads  and  canals,  but,  in  his  enlarged  view  of 
internal  improvements,  he  included  the  establish- 
ment of  a  national  university,  the  support  of  obser- 
vatories, "  light-houses  of  the  skies,"  and  the  explora- 
tion of  the  interior  of  the  United  States  and  of  the 
northwest  coast.  Appealing  to  the  example  of  Euro- 
pean nations,  as  well  as  of  various  states  of  the  Union, 
he  urged  Congress  to  pass  laws  for  the  promotion  of 
agriculture,  commerce,  and  manufactures,  the  "en- 
couragement of  the  mechanic  and  of  the  elegant  arts, 
the  advancement  of  literature,  and  the  progress  of 
the  sciences,  ornamental  and  profound."  "Were 
we,"  he  asked,  "to  slumber  in  indolence  or  fold  up 
our  arms  and  proclaim  to  the  world  that  we  are 
palsied  by  the  will  of  our  constituents,  would  it  not 
be  to  cast  away  the  bounties  of  Providence  and  doom 
ourselves  to  perpetual  inferiority?"  Such  a  profes- 
sion of  faith  as  this  sounded  strangely  in  the  ears  of 
Americans,  respectful  of  their  constituents  and  accus- 
tomed to  regard  government  as  a  necessary  evil.     At 

'  Adams,  Memoirs,  VII.,  59,  61-63. 


1825]  OPPOSITION   TO   ADAMS  277 

a  stroke,  Adams  had  destroyed  his  fair  prospects  of 
winning  the  support  of  Virginia,  and,  what  is  more, 
he  had  aroused  the  fears  of  the  whole  slave-holding 
section. 

At  the  beginning  of  1824  the  legislature  of  Ohio 
passed  a  resolution  in  favor  of  the  emancipation  and 
colonization  of  the  adult  children  of  slaves,  and  was 
supported  by  the  legislatures  of  at  least  six  northern 
states,  including  Pennsylvania,  while  the  proposal 
was  attacked  by  all  the  states  of  the  lower  south.^ 
This  followed  soon  after  the  excitement  aroused  by 
an  attempted  negro  insurrection  in  Charleston,^  in 
1822,  and  from  the  fears  aroused  by  this  plot  the 
south  had  not  yet  recovered.  Already  Governor 
Wilson,  of  South  Carolina,  was  sounding  the  alarm 
in  a  message '  denouncing  the  Ohio  proposition,  and 
declaring  that  there  would  be  more  "  glory  in  form- 
ing a  rampart  with  our  bodies  on  the  confines  of  our 
territory  than  to  be  the  victims  of  a  successful  rebel- 
lion or  the  slaves  of  a  great  consolidated  govern- 
ment." Governor  Troup,  of  Georgia,  stirred  by 
the  same  proposition,  and  especially  by  a  resolution 
which  Senator  King,  of  New  York,  submitted  (Feb- 
ruary 18,  1825)  for  the  use  of  the  funds  arising  from 
the  public  lands  to  aid  in  emancipating  and  removing 
the  slaves,  warned  his  constituents  that  very  soon 

*  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  5,  p.  11  (with  ci- 
tations);  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  204. 

^  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  199;  Atlantic  Monthly,Vll.,j 28. 

^  December  i,  1824.  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations, 
No.  5,  p.  13;  Niles'  Register,  XXVII.,  263,  292. 


278  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1825 

"  the  United  States  government,  discarding  the  mask, 
will  openly  lend  itself  to  a  combination  of  fanatics  for 
the  destruction  of  everything  valuable  in  the  south- 
ern country  " ;  and  he  entreated  the  legislature,  "  hav- 
ing exhausted  the  argument,  to  stand  by  its  arms."  ^ 
While  Georgia  was  in  this  frame  of  mind,  the  admin- 
istration, as  we  shall  see,^  completed  the  breach  by 
refusing  to  permit  the  survey  of  the  Indian  lands  by 
the  state,  and  thus  forced  the  followers  of  Crawford 
in  Georgia  to  unite  with  their  former  opponents  in 
South  Carolina. 

Even  in  North  Carolina,  where  there  had  been  a 
considerable  sentiment  in  favor  of  Adams,'  the  con- 
viction grew  strong  that,  under  such  a  loose  con- 
struction of  the  Constitution  as  that  which  his  mes- 
sage advocated,  the  abolition  of  slavery  might  be 
effected.  The  venerable  Senator  Macon,  to  whom 
Adams  had  at  one  time  looked  as  a  possible  candi- 
date for  the  vice-presidency,  believed  that  the  spirit 
of  emancipation  was  stronger  than  that  for  internal 
improvements;  and  that  the  president's  loose-con- 
struction doctrine  would  render  it  possible  for  Con- 
gress to  free  every  slave. "^  One  of  the  senators  of 
South  Carolina,  desirous  of  supporting  the  adminis- 
tration in  opposition  to  the  Calhoun  faction,  begged 
Adams  to  include  in  his  message  some  passage  reas- 

'  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  5,  p.  17;  House 
Exec.  Docs.,  19  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  IV.,  No.  59,  pp.  69,  70. 

^  Chap,  xviii.,  below. 

'  Univ.  of  North  Carolina,  James  Sprunt  Hist.  Monographs, 
No.  2,  pp.  79,  88,  106.  *Ibid.,  76,  106,  107. 


i826]  OPPOSITION   TO   ADAMS  279 

suring  the  south  in  the  matter  of  slavery,  but  he 
received  a  chilHng  reply/  The  speaker,  Taylor,  al- 
ready obnoxious  because  of  his  previous  champion- 
ship of  the  proposed  exclusion  of  slavery  from 
Missouri,  aroused  the  wrath  of  the  south  by  present- 
ing to  the  House  a  memorial  from  a  "  crazy  French- 
man," who  invited  Congress  to  destroy  all  the  states 
which  should  refuse  to  free  their  slaves.^  In  short, 
there  was  a  wide-spread  though  absolutely  unfound- 
ed fear  that  the  administration  favored  emancipa- 
tion, and  that  the  doctrines  avowed  in  the  message 
of  the  president  gave  full  constitutional  pretext  for 
such  action. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  opposition  was  in  no  agree- 
ment on  principles.'  It  was  dangerous  for  the  south 
to  marshal  its  forces  on  an  issue  which  might  alien- 
ate the  support  of  Pennsylvania.  Much  more  safely 
could  the  enemies  of  the  president  press  the  charge 
that  the  favorite  of  the  people  had  been  deprived  of 
his  rights  by  a  corrupt  political  intrigue.  Conse- 
quently, a  flood  of  proposed  amendments  to  the 
Constitution  poured  upon  both  branches  of  Congress 
day  after  day,  demanding  the  abolition  of  the  choice 
of  president  by  the  House  of  Representatives  and 
the  exclusion  of  members  of  Congress  from  appoint- 
ment to  executive  office  during  their  term  of  service."* 

*  Adams,  Memoirs,  VII.,  57.  ^ Ibid.,  103. 

'  Univ.  of  North  Carolina,  y antes  Sprunt  Hist.  Alonographs, 
No.  2,  p.  79. 

*  Ames,  Amendments  to  the  Const.,  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report 
1896,  II.,  21,  106,  339,  343. 


28o  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1825 

These  measures  were  championed  by  McDuffie,  Ben- 
ton, and  other  friends  of  Calhoun  and  Jackson.  Al- 
though they  were  undoubtedly  called  out  in  part  by 
a  sincere  desire  to  effect  a  change  in  a  system  which 
was  regarded  as  dangerous,  they  also  served  admira- 
bly the  purpose  of  popular  agitation.  In  pursuance 
of  the  same  policy,  a  report  proposing  restrictions 
upon  the  executive  patronage  was  made  in  the  Sen- 
ate (1826)  by  a  committee  which  included  Benton 
and  Van  Buren.  This  was  accompanied  by  six  bills, 
transferring  a  large  share  of  the  patronage  from  the 
president  to  the  congressmen,  and  proposing  the  re- 
peal of  the  four -year  tenure  of  office  act.^  Six 
thousand  copies  of  this  report  were  printed  for  dis- 
tribution, and  the  Puritan  president,  so  scrupulous 
in  the  matter  of  the  civil  service  that  he  disgusted 
his  own  followers,  found  himself  bitterly  attacked 
throughout  the  country  as  a  corrupt  manipulator  of 
patronage. 

The  first  fully  organized  opposition,  however,  was 
effected  in  the  debates  over  Adams's  proposal  to 
send  delegates  to  the  Panama  Congress,  for  here  was 
a  topic  that  permitted  combined  attack  under  many 
flags.  In  the  spring  of  1825  the  ministers  of  Mexico 
and  Colombia  sounded  Clay  to  ascertain  whether 
the  United  States  would  welcome  an  invitation  to 
a  congress^  initiated  by  Bolivar,  with  the  design  of 

'  Fish,  Civil  Service,  73;  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  432. 
^  Adams,  A/ewoirs,  VI.,  531,  536,  542;  International  Am.  Con- 
ference.  Reports,  etc.,  IV.,  "The  Congress  of  1826  at  Panama,"  23. 


i826]  OPPOSITION   TO   ADAMS  281 

consolidating  the  Spanish-American  policy,  though 
at  first  the  United  States  had  not  been  included 
among  the  states  invited/  Clay  was  predisposed  to 
accept  the  overture,  for  he  saw  in  the  congress  an 
opportunity  to  complete  the  American  system,  which 
he  had  long  advocated  and  which  appealed  strongly 
to  his  idealistic  view  of  the  destiny  of  the  new  repub- 
lics.^ But  Adams  was  sceptical  of  the  future  of  these 
new  nations,  and,  as  for  an  American  system,  he  had 
once  (1820)  declared  that  we  had  one  already,  "we 
constituted  the  whole  of  it ;  there  is  no  community  of 
interests  or  of  principles  between  North  and  South 
America."  ^ 

Adams  had  learned  something  from  Clay  in  the 
mean  time,  however,  and  his  own  share  in  announc- 
ing the  Monroe  Doctrine  inclined  him  to  favor  the 
idea  of  such  a  congress,  under  careful  restrictions,  to 
safeguard  our  neutrality  and  independence.  So  the 
inquiries  were  met  in  a  friendly  spirit,  and  formal 
invitations  were  received  from  Mexico,  Colombia,  and 
Central  America  in  the  fall  of  1825,  defining  more 
clearly  the  purposes  of  the  congress  and  the  mode  of 
procedure.^  The  explanations  still  left  much  to  be 
desired,  and  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  presi- 
dent would  have  accepted  the  invitation  had  not 
Clay's  zeal  influenced  his  decision. 


'  International  Am.  Conference,  Reports,  etc.,  IV.,  "  The  Con- 
gress of  1826  at  Panama,"  155.  ^  See  chap,  xi.,  above. 
^  Adams,  Memoirs,  V.,  176;  of.  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  XII.,  113. 
*  International  Am.  Conference,  Report,  IV.,  24-34. 


282  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1825 

As  its  proceedings  finally  showed,  the  real  purpose 
of  the  congress  was  to  form  a  close  union  of  the  new 
republics  against  Spain  or  other  nations  which  might 
attack  them  or  make  colonial  settlements  in  viola- 
tion of  their  territory,  and  to  determine  the  troops 
and  funds  to  be  contributed  by  each  state  for  this 
end.  Its  general  assembly  was  to  meet  every  two 
years,  and,  during  the  war,  its  members  were  to  be 
bound  by  the  action  of  the  majority/  Such  an  or- 
ganization was  manifestly  dangerous  to  the  pre- 
dominance of  the  United  States,  and  participation 
in  it  was  incompatible  with  our  neutrality  and  inde- 
pendence. Having  reason  to  apprehend  that  the 
congress  might  go  to  this  extent,  the  president,  in 
determining  to  accept  the  invitation,  also  determined 
so  to  limit  our  representatives  that  they  should  have 
no  power  to  commit  either  our  neutrality  or  our 
independent  action,  unless  their  action  were  ratified 
by  the  government. 

Nevertheless,  the  prospect  of  an  American  system 
from  which  the  United  States  was  excluded  was  not 
a  pleasing  one,  and  certain  topics  which  were  sug- 
gested for  consideration  made  the  situation  really 
critical.  The  presence  of  a  large  French  fleet  off  the 
coast  of  Cuba,  in  the  summer  of  1825,  revived  the 
apprehension  of  an  invasion  of  that  island,  and  both 
Colombia  and  Mexico  contemplated  an  attack  upon 

*  International  Am.  Conference,  Report,  IV.,  169  (Bolivar's  in- 
structions); 184  (Treaty  of  Confederation  framed  by  the  Panama 
Congress) . 


1825]  OPPOSITION   TO   ADAMS  283 

this  remaining  stronghold  of  Spain.  The  annexa- 
tion of  Cuba  and  Puerto  Rico  by  any  of  the  South 
American  republics  would  unquestionably  have 
meant  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  and  already 
the  spectacle  of  the  black  republic  of  Haiti  had 
brought  uneasiness  to  the  south.  In  this  juncture 
the  administration  endeavored  to  persuade  the  South 
American  republics  to  suspend  their  expedition,  and 
made  overtures  for  Russian  influence  to  induce 
Spain  to  recognize  the  revolted  republics  and  thus 
avoid  the  danger  of  loss  of  her  remaining  posses- 
sions. 

Adams  sent  a  special  message  to  the  Senate  (De- 
cember 26,  1825),  nominating  two  delegates  to  the 
Panama  Congress.  He  attempted  to  disarm  the  gath- 
ering opposition  by  declaring  that,  although  the  com- 
missioning of  these  delegates  was  regarded  as  within 
the  rights  of  the  executive,  he  desired  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives to  the  proposed  mission.  Among  the  topics 
named  by  Adams  as  suitable  for  discussion  at  the 
congress  were  the  principles  of  maritime  neutrality, 
and  "  an  agreement  between  all  of  the  parties  repre- 
sented at  the  meeting  that  each  will  guard  by  its  own 
means  against  the  establishment  of  any  future  Euro- 
pean colony  within  its  borders . ' '  This  was  a  striking 
qualification  of  a  portion  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
and  it  indicates  the  anxiety  of  the  executive  not  to 
commit  the  United  States  to  any  permanent  defen- 
sive alliance  of  the  American  republics.     Seeing  their 


284  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1826 

opportunity,  however,  the  opposition  brought  in  a 
report  strongly  antagonizing  the  recommendation  of 
this  congress,  on  the  ground  that  it  involved  a  de- 
parture from  our  time-honored  policy  of  avoiding 
entangling  alliances,  that  the  congress  would  really 
constitute  a  government,  and  that  the  topics  of  dis- 
cussion might  better  be  handled  by  negotiation  with 
the  respective  states.  The  opposition  considered 
rather  the  purposes  of  the  congress  as  contemplated 
by  the  South  American  promoters  than  the  proposi- 
tions which  the  United  States  was  willing  to  discuss 
in  the  purely  consultative  body  which  Adams  and 
Clay  had  in  mind. 

The  knowledge,  ignored  in  the  executive  message, 
that  the  congress  proposed  to  deal  with  the  problem 
of  the  slave-trade  and  of  the  destiny  of  Cuba,  Puerto 
Rico,  and  Haiti,  kindled  southern  indignation  at  the 
idea  of  submitting  the  subject  of  slavery  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  an  international  tribunal.  In  a  notable 
speech,  Hayne  declared  this  an  entirely  "domestic 
question."  "  With  respect  to  foreign  Nations,"  said 
he,  "  the  language  of  the  United  States  ought  to  be, 
that  it  concerns  the  peace  of  our  own  political  family, 
and  therefore  we  cannot  permit  it  to  be  touched; 
and  in  respect  to  the  slave-holding  States,  the  only 
safe  and  constitutional  ground  on  which  they  can 
stand,  is,  that  they  will  not  permit  it  to  be  brought 
into  question  either  by  their  sister  States,  or  by  the 
Federal  Government."  '  "  The  peace  of  eleven  States 
'  Register  of  Debates,  19  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  II.,  pt.  i.,  165. 


i826]  OPPOSITION    TO   ADAMS  285 

in  this  Union,"  said  Benton,  "will  not  permit  the 
fruits  of  a  successful  negro  insurrection  to  be  exhib- 
ited among  them."  ^ 

This  southern  resentment  against  the  submission 
of  the  question  of  our  connection  with  slavery  and 
with  the  insurrectionary  negro  republics  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  a  foreign  tribunal,  was  combined  with  the 
opposition  of  northern  men  like  Van  Buren  to  engag- 
ing the  United  States  in  a  system  for  the  control  of 
American  affairs  by  a  congress.  Thus  the  enemies 
of  the  administration  were  brought  into  unison. 
Nevertheless,  the  Senate  assented  to  the  mission 
(March  14,  1826)  by  a  vote  of  24  to  19;  and,  after 
an  animated  debate,  the  House,  by  a  vote  of  134  to 
60,  made  the  necessary  appropriations.  It  was  a 
barren  victory,  however,  for  one  of  the  delegates  died 
while  on  his  way,  and  the  other  reached  Panama 
after  the  Congress  had  adjourned.  Although  a  sub- 
sequent session  was  to  have  been  held  at  Tacubaya, 
near  the  city  of  Mexico,  dissensions  among  the  Span- 
ish-American states  prevented  its  meeting.^ 

^Register  of  Debates,  19  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  II.,  pt.  i.,  330. 
^Richardson,   Messages  and  Papers,   II.,   329;   International 
Am.  Conference,  Report,  IV.,  Si,  113,  173-201. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS  AND  FOREIGN 
TRADE 

(1825-1829) 

WHAT  Adams  had  nearest  at  heart  in  his  admin- 
istration was  the  construction  of  a  great  sys- 
tem of  roads  and  canals,  irrespective  of  local  inter- 
ests, for  the  nation  as  a  whole.*  To  "  exalt  the  valleys 
and  lay  low  the  mountains  and  the  hills"  appealed 
to  his  imagination.  He  hoped  that  the  increased 
price  of  the  public  lands,  arising  from  the  improved 
means  of  communication,  would  in  turn  furnish  a 
large  and  steadily  increasing  fund  for  national  turn- 
pikes and  canals.  But  the  American  people  were 
not  anxious  for  a  system  of  scientific  administration, 
either  of  the  public  domain  or  of  internal  improve- 
ments. Although  Benton  could  not  secure  sufficient 
support  to  carry  his  measure  for  graduating  the  price 
of  the  public  lands  and  donating  those  which  found 
no  purchasers  at  fifty  cents  an  acre,^  he  voiced,  nev- 
ertheless, a  very  general  antagonism  to  the  manage- 
ment of  the  domain  by  the  methods  of  the  count- 

*  Wheeler,  Hist,  of  Cong.,  II.,  154;  Adams,  Memoirs,  VII.,  59, 
VIII.,  444;  cf.  chap,  xiii.,  above.  *  Meigs,  5(?h/ow,  165-172. 


1833]  TRANSPORTATION  287 

ing-house.  Nor  was  the  president  able  to  control 
legislation  on  internal  improvements.  The  report  of 
the  engineers  appointed  under  the  general  survey  act 
of  1824  provided  for  the  development  of  the  routes 
of  national  importance.*  But  local  interests  and  the 
pressure  of  corporations  eager  to  receive  federal  sub- 
scriptions to  their  stock  quickly  broke  down  the 
unity  of  the  system. 

The  Senate  declined  to  take  action  on  a  resolu- 
tion introduced  December  20,  1825,  by  Senator  Van 
Buren,  of  New  York,  which  denied  Congress  the 
power  to  make  roads  and  canals  within  the  respective 
states,  and  proposed  a  constitutional  amendment  for 
the  grant  of  the  power  under  limitations.^  Provision 
had  been  made  in  1825  for  extending  the  Cumberland 
Road  from  Wheeling  to  Zanesville,  Ohio,  and  for  sur- 
veys through  the  other  states  of  the  northwest  to 
Missouri,  and  appropriations  were  annually  made  for 
the  road,  until  by  1833  it  was  completed  as  far  as 
Columbus,  Ohio.  Nevertheless,  that  highway  was 
rapidly  going  to  destruction,  and  a  counter  project, 
ultimately  successful,  was  already  initiated  for  re- 
linquishing the  road  to  the  states  through  which  it 
passed.' 

^  State  Papers,  18  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  V. ,  Doc.  83  (February  14, 
1825) ;  cf.  ibid.,  19  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  II.,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  10  (December 
7,  1826). 

^Register  of  Debates,  19  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  II.,  pt.  i.,  20;  Ames, 
Amendments  of  the  Fed.  Const.  (Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Report  1896), 
71,  261. 

^  Young,  Cumberland  Road,  chap.  vii. ;  Hulbert,  Historic  High- 
ways, X. 

VOL.  XIV. —  20 


288  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1825 

Over  two  and  a  third  million  dollars  was  appro- 
priated for  roads  and  harbors  during  the  administra- 
tion of  John  Quincy  Adams,  as  against  about  one 
million  during  the  administrations  of  all  of  his  pred- 
ecessors combined.  Acting  on  the  line  of  least 
constitutional  resistance  opened  by  Monroe,  when 
he  admitted  the  right  of  appropriation  for  internal 
improvements,  though  not  the  right  of  construction 
or  jurisdiction,  extensive  appropriations  were  made 
for  roads  and  canals  and  for  harbors  on  the  Great 
Lakes  and  the  Atlantic.  Far  from  accepting  Ad- 
ams's ideal  of  a  scientific  general  system  irrespective 
of  local  or  party  interests,  districts  combined  with 
one  another  for  local  favors,  corporations  eagerly 
sought  subscriptions  for  their  canal  stock,  and  the 
rival  political  parties  bid  against  each  other  for  the 
support  of  states  which  asked  federal  aid  for  their 
roads  and  canals. 

By  the  middle  of  this  administration  the  popular- 
ity of  internal  improvement  appropriations  seemed 
irresistible,  although  southern  states  raised  their 
voices  against  it  and  complained  bitterly  that  they 
were  neglected.  The  example  of  the  Erie  Canal, 
which  was  open  by  1825,  seemed  to  furnish  proof  of 
the  success  that  awaited  state  canal  construction. 
States  were  learning  that  English  capital  was  ready 
for  investment  in  such  undertakings  and  that  Con- 
gress could  donate  lands  and  subscribe  for  stock. 

By  acts  of  1825  and  1826,  Pennsylvania  initiated 
its  extensive  state  system  of  roads  and  canals  to 


1835]  TRANSPORTATION  289 

reach  the  Ohio,  the  central  part  of  New  York,  and 
the  Great  Lakes/  The  trunk  Hne  of  this  system 
united  Philadelphia  with  Pittsburg  by  a  horse  rail- 
way to  Columbia  on  the  Susquehanna,  thence  by  a 
canal  along  that  river  and  its  tributary,  the  Juniata, 
to  HoUidaysburg,  where  stationary  engines  carried 
the  freight  over  a  series  of  inclined  planes  across  the 
thirty -six  miles  of  mountains,  to  reach  the  western 
section  of  the  canal  at  Johnstown  on  the  Conemaugh, 
and  so  by  the  Allegheny  to  Pittsburg.  Sectional 
jealousies  delayed  the  work,  and  piled  up  a  debt  in- 
curred partly  for  branch  canals  in  various  parts  of 
the  state;  but  by  1830  over  four  hundred  miles  of 
canal  had  been  built  in  Pennsylvania  and  five  hun- 
dred more  projected.  Not  until  1835  was  the  trunk 
line  between  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburg  fully  in 
operation,  however,  and  in  the  decade  after  1822  the 
total  expenditure  for  internal  improvements  in  the 
state  amounted  to  nearly  twenty-six  million  dollars, 
of  which  over  ten  millions  was  contributed  by  indi- 
vidual subscription.  But  the  steam  railroad  proved 
too  strong  a  competitor,  the  state  was  plunged  too 
deeply  in  debt,  and  it  was  not  many  years  before  the 
public  works  were  sold,  and  the  era  of  the  corpora- 
tion opened. 

Meanwhile  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal  project^ 

^  Hulbert,  Historic  Highways,  XIII.,  chap,  iv.;  Worthington, 
Finances  of  Pennsylvania,  22. 

'^  Hulbert,  Historic  Highways,  XIII.,  chap,  iii.;  Ward,  Chesa- 
peake and  Ohio  CarPQl  (Johns  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies,  XVII.) 


290  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1823 

had  gained  great  impetus  under  the  efforts  of  those 
who  wished  to  turn  the  tide  of  western  commerce  to 
the  Potomac  River.  The  innate  difficulties  of  the 
task,  even  more  than  the  opposition  of  Baltimore, 
rendered  abortive  the  efforts  of  the  Potomac  Com- 
pany to  make  the  river  navigable  above  tide-water. 
But  in  1823  public  interest  in  Virginia  and  Mary- 
land was  aroused  by  the  plan  of  a  great  canal  to 
run  alongside  of  the  Potomac  to  its  upper  streams, 
and  thence  to  connect  with  the  Monongahela  or 
Youghiogheny  in  order  to  reach  the  Ohio.  At  a 
convention  which  met  in  Washington  in  the  fall  of 
1823,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia were  largely  represented  by  delegates  enthusi- 
astic over  this  new  highway  to  the  west.  Even 
Baltimore  acquiesced  in  the  undertaking  after  a  pro- 
vision giving  the  right  to  tap  the  canal  by  a  branch 
to  that  city,  so  that  her  western  trade  should  not  be 
diverted  to  the  Potomac  cities. 

By  1826  the  company  was  duly  chartered  by  Vir- 
ginia and  Maryland;  Pennsylvania's  consent  was 
also  obtained;  and  the  financiering  of  the  enter- 
prise seemed  feasible  by  joint  subscription  to  the 
stock  by  Maryland,  Virginia,  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia, and  the  federal  government.  Under  the  gen- 
eral survey  act  of  1824,  the  route  was  surveyed, 
including  an  extension  to  Lake  Erie  by  way  of  a 
canal  from  the  Ohio.  But  when,  in  1826,  the  board 
of  engineers  published  its  estimate  of  the  cost  of  the 
canal,  it  was  seen  that  the  larger  plans  were  doomed, 


i828]  TRANSPORTATION  291 

for  the  total  cost  was  placed  at  over  twenty-two 
million  dollars.  This  was  practically  prohibitive,  for 
the  whole  capital  stock  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio 
Company  was  only  six  millions.  Congress  made  a 
million-dollar  subscription  to  the  stock  of  the  com- 
pany, but  only  the  eastern  section  of  the  canal  could 
be  begun ;  the  completion  of  navigation  between  the 
coal-fields  on  the  upper  Ohio  and  Cumberland  on  the 
Potomac  must  be  postponed. 

Baltimore's  interest  in  the  grand  design  of  canal 
communication  between  that  city  and  Pittsburg 
quickly  disappeared.  Nearer  to  the  Ohio  Valley 
than  any  other  seaport,  she  had  built  turnpikes  to 
connect  with  the  national  road,  and  thus  shared  with 
Philadelphia  the  western  trade.  But  now  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  were  undertaking  canal  systems 
which  were  certain  in  the  long  run  to  destroy  the 
advantages  of  Baltimore.  In  desperation,  her  far- 
sighted  and  courageous  merchants  inaugurated  the 
plan  of  a  railroad  across  the  mountains  to  the  Ohio, 
grasping  the  idea  that  as  the  canal  had  shown  its 
superiority  over  the  turnpike,  so  this  new  device 
would  win  the  day  over  the  canal.  In  1827  and  1828 
charters  for  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  were 
granted  by  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania. 

At  Washington,  on  July  4,  1828,  President  Adams 
stripped  off  his  coat,  amid  the  cheers  of  the  crowd, 
and  thrust  the  spade  into  the  ground  in  signal  of 
the  beginning  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal; 
but  on  the  same  day  a  rival  celebration  was  in 


292  RISE    OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1825 

progress  at  Baltimore,  where  the  venerable  signer 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Charles  Car- 
roll of  Carrollton,  placed  the  foundation-stone  to 
commemorate  the  commencement  of  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  Railroad,  first  of  the  iron  bonds  between 
the  east  and  the  west.  When  Adams  thus  won  the 
plaudits  of  the  people  for  his  evidence  of  ability  to 
break  the  conventions  of  polite  society  and  use  a 
laborer's  tool,  it  was  perhaps  the  only  time  that  he 
and  democracy  came  into  sympathetic  touch.  But 
he  was  aiding  in  a  losing  cause,  for,  though  Carroll 
was  a  man  of  the  past,  destiny  was  working  on  the 
side  of  the  movement  which  he  represented.  In  the 
field  of  transportation,  the  initiative  of  individuals 
and  of  corporations  during  the  next  two  generations 
proved  superior  to  that  of  state  or  nation. 

In  the  mean  time,  Ohio,  eager  to  take  advantage 
of  the  competition  of  these  rival  routes  from  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Washington,  and 
wishing  to  develop  the  central  region  of  the  state, 
undertook  in  1825  a  state  system  of  canals  connect- 
ing the  Ohio  with  Lake  Erie.*  The  Ohio  Canal  be- 
gan at  Portsmouth  and  followed  the  valleys  of  the 
Scioto  and  the  Cuyahoga  to  Cleveland,  while  another 
canal  extended  from  Cincinnati  along  the  Miami  to 
Dayton.  By  branches  connecting  with  the  Penn- 
sylvania system,  this  net- work  of  water-ways  was 
intended  to  give  alternative  outlets  for  the  rapidly 

•  Morris,  Internal  Improvement  in  Ohio  (Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Pa- 
pers, III.) ,  107 ;  see  also  McClelland  and  Huntington,  0/no  Canals. 


1832]  TRANSPORTATION  293 

growing  surplus  of  the  state.  Wheat  which  sold  for 
from  twenty-five  to  thirty-seven  cents  per  bushel 
in  central  Ohio  in  1825  brought  double  the  amount 
in  1832  when  the  canal  began  to  be  effective;  and 
it  sold  for  a  higher  price  a  hundred  miles  west  of 
Pittsburg  than  it  did  sixty  miles  to  the  east  of  that 
city,  where  water  transportation  was  lacking.*  An 
example  of  the  rivalry  of  the  followers  of  Adams 
and  of  Jackson  in  conciliating  western  interests  is 
furnished  in  the  case  of  Ohio,  just  prior  to  the 
campaign  of  1828,  when  each  party  in  Congress 
persisted  in  supporting  its  own  bill  donating  lands 
for  the  canals  of  that  state.  Owing  to  the  fear  of 
each  that  the  other  party  would  gain  the  credit  of 
the  measure,  both  bills  were  passed,  and  Ohio  re- 
ceived double  the  amount  originally  asked.'  It 
was  small  wonder  that  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  other 
western  states  memorialized  Congress  for  aid  in  their 
own  plans  for  canals. 

The  activity  of  the  states,  no  longer  waiting 
for  the  federal  government  to  construct  a  national 
system;  the  rapidly  growing  demand  for  the  relin- 
quishment of  the  national  road  to  the  states  within 
which  it  lay;  and  the  activity  of  corporations,  all 
pointed  to  a  new  era  in  internal  improvements.  The 
states  were  ready  to  receive  appropriations,  but  they 
preferred  to  build  their  own  roads  and  dig  their  own 

'  Quar.  Jour,  of  Econ.,  XVII.,  15;  Dial,  in  Ohio  Archaeological 
and  Hist.  Soc,  Publications,  XIII.,  479. 
*  Benton,  Abridgment,  X.,  197  n. 


294  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1815 

canals.  The  state  and  the  corporation  were  replac- 
ing the  national  government  as  the  controlling  power 
in  internal  improvements,  and  Adams's  conception  of 
a  national  system  of  turnpikes  and  canals  had  failed. 

Nor  was  President  Adams  successful  in  carrying 
out  a  system  of  complete  maritime  reciprocity. 
After  the  War  of  181 2,  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  agreed  upon  the  abolition  of  discriminating 
duties  on  ships  or  products  engaged  in  the  trade  be- 
tween the  two  countries ;  *  but  England  reserved  her 
right  to  exempt  her  American  possessions  from  this 
reciprocity.  By  excluding  the  ships  of  the  United 
States  from  the  trade  with  the  English  West  Indies, 
England  denied  a  profitable  avocation  to  American 
ship-owners;  while,  at  the  same  time,  the  liberal 
arrangements  of  the  United  States  permitted  her 
vessels  freely  to  enter  the  ports  of  this  country  with 
their  cargoes  of  English  manufactures,  and  to  carry 
thence  to  the  West  Indies  lumber,  flour,  and  pro- 
visions to  exchange  for  the  molasses  and  sugar  of 
the  islands. 

This  ability  to  make  a  triangular  voyage,  with 
profits  on  each  transaction,  gave  such  advantage  to 
British  ships  that  they  were  able  to  carry  on  the 
trade  between  the  United  States  and  England  at  a 
rate  below  that  which  American  vessels  could  afford. 
Driven  to  seek  some  remedy,  the  Yankee  merchants 
and  skippers  turned  to  the  Orient.     The  trade  with 

*  Cf.  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  (Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap, 
xvi. 


i826]  TRANSPORTATION  295 

China  and  the  East  Indies  developed  rapidly,  and 
our  tonnage  registered  for  foreign  trade  increased 
from  583,000  tons  in  1820  to  758,000  in  1828.* 
Ninety  per  cent,  of  our  foreign  commerce  was  car- 
ried in  our  own  vessels,  and,  from  this  point  of 
view,  American  shipping  enjoyed  one  of  the  most 
prosperous  periods  in  its  history.^  Smuggling  was 
extensively  carried  on  in  the  West  Indies,  and  a 
war  of  retaliatory  legislation  in  regard  to  shipping 
characterized  the  whole  decade. 

In  1825  Parliament  passed  a  somewhat  obscure 
act  which  opened  the  ports  on  a  more  liberal  system 
of  reciprocity.  To  nations  without  colonies  she  of- 
fered the  same  shipping  rights  in  her  colonies  which 
such  nations  gave  to  England  and  her  possessions. 
The  act  provided  that  it  must  be  accepted  within  a 
year  by  nations  who  desired  to  avail  themselves  of 
its  provisions.  President  Adams  preferred  to  deal 
with  the  question  by  diplomacy,  and  Congress  neg- 
lected to  pass  the  legislation  necessary  to  accept 
the  offer.  When  Gallatin,  who  had  been  sent  to 
England  to  treat  of  this  matter,  opened  his  negoti- 
ations in  1826,  he  was  informed  that  it  was  too  late. 
The  stipulated  time  having  elapsed,  American  ves- 
sels were  definitely  excluded  from  the  West  Indies 
in  1826  by  orders  in  council.^     In  the  campaign  of 


'  Marvin,  American  Merchant  Marine,  chap.  ix. 
^  Pitkin,  Statistical  View  (ed.  of  1835),  363;  Soley,  "  Maritime 
Industries,"  in  Shaler  (ed.  of  1894),  United  States,  I.,  538. 
^  Adams,  Gallatin,  615-620. 


296  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1819 

1828  Adams  was  blamed  for  the  failure  to  seize  this 
opportunity,  but  the  generally  prosperous  condition 
of  our  shipping  not  only  moderated  the  discontent, 
but  even  led  to  a  law  (May  24,  1828)  intended  to 
place  American  vessels  in  complete  control  of  our 
foreign  commerce  by  providing  for  the  abolition,  by 
proclamation  of  the  president,  of  all  discriminating 
duties  against  such  nations  as  should  free  ships  of  the 
United  States  from  corresponding  discriminations.  In 
the  long  run,  this  reciprocity  act  proved  a  mistake ;  the 
end  of  Adams's  administration  marked  the  beginning 
of  a  decline  in  the  prosperity  of  the  merchant  marine.* 
American  commerce  during  this  period  by  no 
means  kept  pace  with  the  growing  wealth  and  popu- 
lation of  the  country.^  As  we  have  seen,  the  staple 
states  produced  the  lion's  share  of  the  domestic  ex- 
ports, and  the  internal  exchange  favored  by  the  pro- 
tective tariffs  restrained  the  foreign  importations. 
Aside  from  the  depression  in  1821,  following  the 
panic  of  1819,  and  the  extraordinary  rise  in  1825, 
the  exports  in  general  exhibited  no  marked  increase 
or  decline  between  1820  and  1829.  Imports  showed 
a  value  of  nearly  seventy-four  and  one-half  million 
dollars  in  1820,  ninety  millions  in  1825,  and  sixty- 
seven  millions  in  1829.^   During  the  whole  of  Adams's 

'  Soley,  in  Shaler,  United  S tali's,  I.,  540. 

2  Stems,  Foreign  Trade  of  the  United  States,  1820-1840,  in 
Jour.  Pol.  Econ.,  VIII.,  34,  452. 

'  Soley,  in  Shaler,  United  States,  I.,  538;  cf.  Pitkin,  Statistical 
View  (ed.  of  1835),  177;  W.  C.  Ford,  in  Depew,  One  Hundred 
Years  of  Am.  Commerce,  I.,  23. 


i828J  TRANSPORTATION  297 

administration,  New  York  preserved  its  easy  lead  in 
domestic  exports,  although,  as  the  west  leaped  up  to 
power,  New  Orleans  rose  rapidly  to  a  close  second  in 
exports  of  domestic  origin.  The  southern  cities  re- 
tained merely  the  same  proportion  of  the  exports  of 
domestic  origin  which  they  had  in  1820,  in  spite  of 
the  great  increase  of  cotton  production.  New  York 
and  New  Orleans  gained  a  large  fraction  of  this  trade, 
and  Massachusetts  changed  its  proportion  of  domes- 
tic exports  only  slightly  during  the  whole  decade. 
Over  three-fourths  of  the  cotton  went  to  the  British 
Isles,  while  almost  all  the  pork  and  beef,  and  two- 
thirds  of  the  flour,  went  to  the  West  Indies,  South 
America,  and  Great  Britain's  American  colonies.* 

The  statistics  of  commerce  repeat  the  same  story 
of  increasing  national  self-dependence  which  was  told 
by  the  development  of  manufactures,  internal  trade, 
and  transportation,  and  even  by  the  diplomatic 
policy  of  the  United  States.  The  nation  was  build- 
ing an  empire  of  its  own,  with  sections  which  took 
the  place  of  kingdoms.  The  west  was  already  be- 
coming the  granary  of  the  whole  country.  But  in 
the  development  of  this  "American  system,"  the 
navigating  portions  of  New  England  and  the  staple 
states  of  the  south  and  southwest  found  themselves 
at  a  disadvantage.  Their  interest  lay  in  a  free  ex- 
change across  the  ocean. 

Although  many  minor  treaties  of  commerce  and 
navigation  were  negotiated  by  Clay  during  this  ad- 

'  Pitkin,  Statistical  View,  1 21-137. 


298  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1825 

ministration,  all  his  other  diplomatic  efforts  met 
with  failure,  among  them  attempts  to  purchase 
Texas  and  to  procure  a  treaty  with  England  for  the 
rendition  of  fugitive  slaves  who  had  escaped  to  Can- 
ada— strange  evidences  of  the  political  concessions 
of  the  northern  president. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

REACTION  TOWARDS  STATE   SOVEREIGNTY 
(1816-1829) 

FROM  the  close  of  the  War  of  181 2,  an  increas- 
ing reaction  was  in  progress  in  various  states 
against  the  ardent  nationalism  which  characterized 
the  country  at  that  time.  The  assertion  of  the  doc- 
trine of  state  sovereignty  by  the  Hartford  Conven- 
tion in  18 14*  so  aroused  the  other  sections  of  the 
country  that  particularism  was  for  the  time  dis- 
credited. Leaders  of  Virginia  politics  even  approved 
a  rumor  that  Madison  would  march  troops  against 
New  England;  Judge  Roane,  later  a  champion  of 
Virginia's  sovereignty,  denounced  the  "anarchical 
principles"  of  the  section.^  In  that  period,  when 
Calhoun  and  the  other  leading  statesmen  of  South 
Carolina  supported  the  protective  tariff  and  the 
bonus  bill,  when  Madison,  the  author  of  the  Vir- 
ginia resolutions  of  1798,  signed  the  bill  for  the  re- 
charter  of  the  national  bank,  when  Chief  -  Justice 
Marshall,  a  son  of  Virginia,  was  welding  firm  the 
bonds  of  nationalism  in  his  great  series  of  decisions 

'  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  (Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chap.  xv. 
^  Randolph-Macon  College,  JohnP.  BranchHist.  Papers,  II.,  i8. 


300  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1819 

limiting  the  powers  of  the  states  and  developing  the 
doctrine  of  loose  construction  of  the  Constitution,* 
and  when  New  England  itself  was  explaining  away 
the  particularistic  purposes  of  the  Hartford  Conven- 
tion, it  might  well  seem  that  the  days  of  state  sov- 
ereignty had  come  to  an  end. 

Even  then,  however,  the  pendulum  was  starting  to 
swing  in  the  opposite  direction.  The  crisis  of  18 19 
and  the  decisions  of  the  supreme  court  asserting  the 
constitutionality  of  the  national  bank  under  the 
broad  national  conception  of  the  Constitution,  pro- 
duced protests  and  even  resistance  from  various 
states  whose  interests  were  most  affected.  Ohio  in 
18 19  forcibly  collected  a  tax  on  the  branch  bank  of 
the  United  States,  in  defiance  of  Marshall's  decision 
rendered  earlier  in  the  year  in  the  case  of  McCulloch 
vs.  Maryland;  and  in  182 1  her  legislature  reaffirmed 
the  doctrines  of  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolu- 
tions, and  passed  an  act  withdrawing  the  protection 
of  the  laws  of  the  state  from  the  national  bank,^  and 
even  persisted  in  her  resistance  after  the  decision 
(Osbom  vs.  Bank  of  U.  S.,  1824)  against  the  state. 
But  the  proceeds  of  the  tax  were  ultimately  restored. 
Nor  was  Ohio  alone  in  her  opposition  to  this  decision. 
Kentucky  was  almost  equally  excited,  and  Senator 
R.  M.  Johnson  made  a  vain  attempt  in  1821  to  pro- 
cure an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  providing 
that  in  controversies  in  which  a  state  was  a  party 

*  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality  {Ant.  Amotion,  XIII.),  chap,  xviii. 

*  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  3,  p.  5. 


i82i]  CONSTITUTIONAL   REACTION  301 

the  Senate  of  the  United  States  should  have  appel- 
late jurisdiction.*  Judge  Roane,  chief-justice  of  Vir- 
ginia, in  a  series  of  papers  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer, 
challenging  the  nationalistic  reasoning  of  the  court, 
asserted  that  the  Constitution  resulted  from  a  com- 
pact between  the  states,^  and  in  this  attack  he  was 
heartily  supported  by  Jefferson.'  Justice  Marshall, 
in  Cohens  vs.  Virginia"^  (1821),  decided  that  the  su- 
preme court  had  appellate  jurisdiction  in  a  case 
decided  by  the  state  court  where  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws  of  the  United  States  were  involved,  even 
though  a  state  was  a  party. 

Virginia's  attorneys  maintained,  on  the  contrary, 
that  the  final  construction  of  the  Constitution  might 
be  given  by  the  courts  of  every  state  in  the  Union ; 
and  Judge  Roane,  whose  own  decision  had  been 
overturned,  again  appealed  to  his  fellow  -  citizens 
in  a  strong  series  of  articles.  Again  Jefferson  de- 
nounced the  consolidating  tendencies  of  the  judi- 
ciary, "which,  working  like  gravity  without  any 
intermission,  is  to  press  us  at  last  into  one  consoli- 
dated mass."  Virginia  entered  her  solemn  protest 
against  the  decision,  and  her  House  of  Delegates 
reaffirmed  the  argument  of  Virginia's  counsel,  and 

^Annals  of  Cong.,  ij  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  I.,  23,  68,  96;  Ames, 
Staie  Docs.,  No.  3,  p.  17 ;  Ames,  Amendments  to  the  Const.,  in  Am. 
Hist.  Assoc,  Report  1896,  II.,  161;  Niles'  Register,  XVII.,  289, 

311-  447- 

^Randolph-Macon  College,  John  P.  Branch  Hist.  Papers,  II., 
106-121. 

^  Jefferson,  Writings  (Ford's  ed.),  X.,  140,  189,  229. 

*  6  Wheaton,  264. 


302  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

asserted  that  neither  the  government  of  the  state 
nor  of  the  United  States  could  press  the  other  from 
its  sphere.  In  effect,  Virginia's  position  would  have 
given  the  state  a  veto  on  the  will  of  the  federal  gov- 
ernment, by  the  protection  which  her  courts  could 
have  extended  to  the  individual  subject  to  her  juris- 
diction under  the  interpretation  placed  by  the  state 
upon  the  Constitution.^ 

The  leading  expositor  of  Virginia  reaction  in  this 
period  was  John  Taylor  of  Caroline,  the  mover  of 
the  resolutions  of  1798.  His  Construction  Con- 
strued, published  in  1820,  was  introduced  by  a  pref- 
ace in  which  the  editor  said:  "The  period  is  indeed 
by  no  means  an  agreeable  one.  It  borrows  new 
gloom  from  the  apathy  which  seems  to  run  over  so 
many  of  our  sister  states.  The  very  sound  of  State 
Rights  is  scarcely  ever  heard  among  them;  and  by 
many  of  their  eminent  politicians  is  only  heard  to  be 
mocked  at."     Taylor  himself  was  led  to  write  the 

^book  by  the  agitation  over  the  Missouri  question 
and  the  case  of  McCulloch  vs.  Maryland.     One  of  its 

\  purposes  was  to  insist  that  sovereignty  was  not  di- 
vided between  the  separate  spheres  of  the  state  and 
federal  government,  but  rested  rather  in  the  people 
of  the  several  states.  Two  years  later,  in  his  Tyr- 
anny Unmasked,  Taylor  developed  the  idea  that  the 

'  iTandolph-Macon  College,  jfohn  P.  B%anch  Hist.  Papers,  II., 
28;  Jefferson,  Writings  (Ford's  ed.),  IX.,  184;  cf.  ibid.,  X.  passim; 
Madison,  Writings,  III.,  217-224;  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal 
Relations,  No.  3, p.  15;  Niles'  Register,  XX.,  118;  6  Wheaton,  385. 


1823]  CONSTITUTIONAL   REACTION  303 

division  of  the  power  of  the  people  between  the 
federal  and  state  governments  would  be  nugatory 
if  either  Congress  or  the  supreme  court  could  "ex- 
clusively determine  the  boundaries  of  power  between 
the  states  and  the  general  government.  His  remedy 
for  usurpation  was  the  "state  veto,"  which  was  to 
be"" no  mere  didactic  lecture,"  but  involved  the  right 
of  resisting  unconstitutional  laws.  He  met  the  diffi- 
culty that  the  people  ofone  state  would  construe  the 
Constitution  for  the  people  of  all  the  states,  by  the 
answer  that  it  was  the  lesser  evil.^  Again  in  1823, 
in  his  New  Views  of  the  Constitution,  he  expounded 
the  same  ideas,  and  dwelt  upon  the  position  of  the 
states  as  the  defenders  of  separate  geographical  in- 
terests agaiiist~l)ppression  by  the  majority  of  the 
nation.  He  saw  a  grave  danger  in  the  relinquish- 
ment to  Congress  of  the  power  to  deal  with  local  and 
dissimilar  geographical  interests  by  loose-construc- 
tion legislation  upon  such  subjects  as  banks,  roads, 
canals,  and  manufactures.  It  would  tend  to  pro- 
duce geographical  combinations;  sections  by  com- 
bining would  exploit  and  oppress  the  minority; 
"  Congress  would  become  an  assembly  of  geographi- 
cal envoys  from  the  North,  the  South,  and  the  West." 
Against  these  evils,  the  Constitution,  according  to  his 
view,  had  provided  by  confining  geographical  inter- 
ests within  state  lines  instead  of  "collecting  them 
into  one  intriguing  arena."  The  states,  reposing  on 
their  sovereignty,  would  interpose  a  check  to  oppres- 

*  Taylor,  Tyranny  Unmasked,  258,  262. 

VOL.    XIV. 21 


304  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1822 

sive   action  and   to   the  combination  of  sectional 
interests  against  the  minority/ 

Not  a  theory  of  government,  however,  but  a  politi- 
cal exigency  called  out  a  working  principle  of  state 
rights.  When  the  industrial  policy  of  the  government 
fell  under  the  complete  control  of  the  north,  and  the 
social  system  of  the  south  seemed  to  be  menaced, 
state  sovereignty  controlled  the  southern  policy.  The 
increase  in  popularity  of  Clay's  American  system 
of  internal  improvements  and  a  protective  tariff 
aroused  the  apprehensions  of  the  whole  planting 
section ;  the  struggle  over  the  admission  of  Missouri 
taught  the  south  the  power  of  an  unfriendly  national 
majority;  and,  in  1822,  a  threatened  insurrection  of 
the  negroes  at  Charleston  brought  home  to  the  whole 
section,  and  particularly  to  South  Carolina,  the  dan- 
gers arising  from  an  agitation  of  the  question  of 
slavery.^  In  the  irritated  condition  and  depression 
of  this  section,  the  triumph  of  loose  construction 
principles  and  the  possible  election  of  a  northern 
president  seemed  to  presage  not  only  the  sacrifice  of 
their  economic  interests,  but  even  the  freeing  of  their 
slaves.'  The  colonization  society,  which  in  its  ori- 
gin had  been  supported  by  southern  men,  became 
an  object  of  denunciation  by  the  lower  south  after 
the  Missouri  controversy  and  the  insurrection  of 


'  Taylor,  New  Views  (ed.  of  1823),  261  et  seq. 
'  Cf.  Y{.a.rt ,  Slavery  and  Abolition  (Am.  Nation,  XVT.),  chap.  viii. 
'  See  the  resolutions  of  Virginia,  December  23,  18 16,  in  Ames, 
State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations ,  No.  5,  p.  3. 


1825]  CONSTITUTIONAL   REACTION  305 

1822.  The  opposition  was  intensified  by  the  dispo- 
sition of  the  society,  towards  the  close  of  the  period, 
to  advocate  emancipation,  as  well  as  the  removal  of 
the  existing  free  negroes.* 

In  Virginia  the  doctrine  of  state  rights  was  sup- 
ported by  the  friends  of  Crawford,  and,  in  general, 
by  the  older  portion  of  the  state.  In  her  western 
counties,  however,  where  a  movement  was  in  prog- 
ress for  a  constitutional  convention  to  redistribute 
political  power  so  that  the  populous  interior  should 
not  be  subordinated  to  the  slave-holding  minority 
of  the  coast,  there  was  a  strong  sentiment  in  favor 
of  the  constitutionality  and  expediency  both  of  fed- 
eral internal  improvements  and  the  tariff.  Never- 
theless, Virginia's  voice  was  determined  by  the  as- 
cendency of  the  old-time  plantation  interests.  In 
1825,  Jefferson  suggested  that  the  legislature  of  Vir- 
ginia should  pass  a  set  of  resolutions,  declaring  the 
internal-improvement  laws  null  and  void.  He  ad- 
vised, however,  that,  at  the  same  time,  the  issue 
should  be  avoided  by  an  act  of  the  Virginia  legis- 
lature validating  these  congressional  laws^  until  ac- 
tion could  be  taken  on  a  carefully  guarded  proposal 
to  amend  the  Constitution  so  as  to  grant  the  right. 
This  was  the  last  effort  of  Jefferson  to  stay  the  tide 
of  internal  improvements  which  was  sweeping  oppo- 
sition before  it,  and  even  he  withdrew  his  project 

*  Cf.  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition  (Am.  Nation,  XVI.),  chap.  xiv. 
^  JeflEerson,  Writings  (Ford's  ed.),  X.,  348-352;  Ames,  State 
Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  4,  p.  8. 


3o6  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1820 

before  it  was  acted  on.  His  death  (July  4,  1826) 
removed  from  Virginia  the  most  influential  advocate 
of  state  sovereignty  and  the  greatest  of  the  Virginia 
dynasty  since  Washington.  On  the  same  day  John 
Adams  died.  The  men  who  made  the  declaration 
of  independence  were  passing  away,  but  the  spirit  of 
that  epoch  was  reviving  in  the  south. 

South  Carolina  was  the  theatre  of  a  conflict  be- 
tween the  old-time  forces  of  nationalism,  of  which 
Calhoun  had  been  the  most  prominent  exponent, 
and  the  newer  tendencies  which  would  safeguard  the 
interests  of  the  commonwealth  by  appealing  to  the 
doctrine  of  state  sovereignty,^  At  first,  the  con- 
servative party  was  in  the  ascendency.  In  1820 
the  House  of  Representatives  of  South  Carolina 
passed  a  resolution  which  deprecated  the  system 
of  protection  as  premature  and  pernicious,  but  ad- 
mitted that  Congress  possessed  the  power  of  enact- 
ing all  laws  relating  to  commerce,  and  lamented 
the  practice  "of  arraying  upon  the  questions  of 
national  policy  the  states  as  distinct  and  inde- 
pendent sovereignties  in  opposition  to,  or  (what  is 
much  the  same  thing),  with  a  view  to  exercise  a 
control  over  the  general  government";^  and,  as 
late  as  1824,  the  same  body  passed  resolutions 
declaring  that  the  man  "who  disseminates  doc- 
trines whose  tendency  is  to  give  an  unconstitutional 
preponderance  to  State,  or  United  States'  rights, 

•  Houston,  Nullification  in  S.  C,  chap.  iv. 

2  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  4,  p.  3. 


i826]  CONSTITUTIONAL   REACTION  307 

must  be  regarded  as  inimical  to  the  forms  of  govern- 
ment under  which  we  have  hitherto  so  happily 
hved";  and  that  "the  People  have  conferred  no 
power  upon  their  state  legislature  to  impugn  the 
Acts  of  the  Federal  Government  or  the  decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States."  ^  The 
state  Senate  was  already  controlled  by  the  opponents 
of  national  power,  led  by  Judge  Smith ;  and  the  next 
year  the  Lower  House  also  fell  under  their  dom- 
inance. 

The  attitude  of  McDuffie  illustrates  the  transi- 
tional conditions  in  South  Carolina.  In  1821  he 
published  a  pamphlet  supporting  a  liberal  construc- 
tion of  the  powers  of  Congress,  and  refuting  the 
"ultra  doctrines  respecting  consolidation  and  state 
sovereignty."  ^  In  1824,  also,  he  supported  the  con- 
stitutionality and  expediency  of  the  general  survey 
act,  and  repudiated  the  idea  that  the  state  govern- 
ments were  "in  any  respect  more  worthy  of  confi- 
dence than  the  General  Government."  ^  But  he 
opposed  the  tariff  of  1824,  and  in  1825  he  voted 
against  specific  measures  for  internal  improvement. 
Soon  after  this  he  joined  the  ranks  of  the  advocates 
of  state  sovereignty,  and,  together  with  Hamilton 
and  Hayne,  so  far  outstripped  the  leaders  of  that 
faction  that  Judge  Smith  and  his  friends  found  them- 

*  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  4,  p.  6. 

2  Defense  of  a  Liberal  Construction,  etc.,  by  "  One  of  the  Peo- 
ple." Reprinted  in  Philadelphia,  1831.  To  this  pamphlet, 
Governor  Hamilton  had  prefixed  "an  encomiastic  advertise- 
ment." ^Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  1372. 


3o8  RISE    OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1821 

selves  in  a  conservative  minority  against  the  ultra 
doctrines  of  their  former  opponents. 

Doubtless  the  reversal  of  South  Carolina's  atti- 
tude was  accelerated  by  the  slavery  agitation  which 
followed  the  emancipation  proposition  of  Ohio,  al- 
ready mentioned,  and  by  the  contest  over  the  negro 
seamen  act,*  a  measure  by  which  South  Carolina,  in 
consequence  of  the  plot  at  Charleston,  required  that 
free  negroes  on  vessels  entering  a  port  of  South  Caro- 
lina should  be  imprisoned  during  the  sojourn  of  the 
ship.  The  act  brought  out  protests,  both  from  other 
states  and  from  Great  Britain,  whose  subjects  were 
imprisoned ;  and  it  was  declared  unconstitutional  by 
Adams's  attorney-general  and  by  the  federal  courts  • 
nevertheless,  it  remained  unrepealed  and  continued 
to  be  enforced.^  The  Senate  of  South  Carolina  met 
the  situation,  at  the  close  of  1824,  by  resolutions 
affirming  that  the  duty  of  preventing  insurrections 
was  "paramount  to  all  lazvs,  all  treaties,  all  constitu- 
tions," and  protesting  against  any  claims  of  right 
of  the  United  States  to  interfere  with  her  domestic 
regulations  in  respect  to  the  colored  population.' 

Georgia,  a  few  years  later  (December,  1827),  in 
opposition  to  the  Colonization  Society,'*  vehemently 
asserted  her  rights,  and  found  the  remedy  no  longer 

^  Passed  December  21,  1822.  See  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Fed- 
eral Relations,  No.  5,  p.  12;  cf.  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition  {Am. 
Nation,  XVI.),  chap.  xix. 

^  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  200-204,  417. 

^  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  5,  p.  14. 

*  Ibid.,  17,  19. 


i828]  CONSTITUTIONAL   REACTION  309 

in  remonstrance,  but  in  "a  firm  and  determined 
union  of  the  people  and  the  states  of  the  south" 
against  submission  to  interference.  Already  Geor- 
gia had  placed  herself  in  the  attitude  of  resistance 
to  the  general  government  over  the  question  of  the 
Indians  within  the  state.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
nation,  the  Indians  on  the  borders  of  the  settled  area 
of  Georgia  were  a  menace  and  an  obstacle  to  her 
development.  Indeed,  they  constituted  a  danger  to 
the  United  States  as  well :  their  pretensions  to  inde- 
pendence and  complete  sovereignty  over  their  terri- 
tory were  at  various  times  utilized  by  adventurers 
from  France,  England,  and  Spain  as  a  means  of  pro- 
moting the  designs  of  these  powers.*  Jackson  drove 
a  wedge  between  the  Indian  confederacies  of  this 
region  by  his  victories  in  the  War  of  1812  and  the 
cessions  which  followed.^  Although,  in  182 1,  a  large 
belt  of  territory  between  the  Ocmulgee  and  Flint 
rivers  was  ceded  by  the  Creeks  to  Georgia,  the  state 
saw  with  impatience  some  of  the  best  lands  still  occu- 
pied by  these  Indians  in  the  territory  lying  between 
the  Flint  and  the  Chattahoochee. 

The  spectacle  of  a  stream  of  Georgia  settlers  cross- 
ing this  rich  Indian  area  of  their  own  state  to  settle 
in  the  lands  newly  acquired  in  Alabama  and  Missis- 
sippi provoked  Georgia's  wrath,  and  numerous  ur- 
gent calls  were  made  upon  the  government  to  carry 

*  Ant.  Hist.  Rev.,  X.,  249. 

2  Babcock,  Am.  Nationality    (Am.  Nation,  XIII.),  chaps,  ii., 


3IO  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1825 

out  the  agreement  made  in  1802/  by  completing  the 
acquisition  of  these  Indian  lands.  Responding  to 
this  demand,  a  treaty  was  made  at  Indian  Springs  in 
February,  1825,  by  which  the  Creeks  ceded  all  of 
their  lands  in  Georgia ;  but  when  Adams  came  to  the 
presidency  he  was  confronted  with  a  serious  situa- 
tion arising  from  this  treaty.  Shortly  after  it  had 
been  ratified,  Mcintosh,  a  principal  chief  of  the  Lower 
Creeks,  who  had  signed  the  treaty,  contrary  to  the 
rule  of  the  tribe  and  in  spite  of  the  decision  to  sell  no 
more  land,  was  put  to  death;  and  the  whole  treaty 
was  repudiated  by  the  great  body  of  the  Creeks,  as 
having  been  procured  by  fraud  and  made  by  a  small 
minority  of  their  nation.  The  difficulty  arose  from 
the  fact  that  the  various  villages  of  these  Ind- 
ians were  divided  into  opposing  parties :  the  Upper 
Creeks,  living  chiefly  along  the  forks  of  the  Alabama, 
on  the  Tallapoosa  and  the  Coosa  in  Alabama,  con- 
stituting the  more  numerous  branch,  were  deter- 
mined to  yield  no  more  territor> ,  while  the  principal 
chiefs  of  the  Lower  Creeks,  who  dwelt  in  western 
Georgia,  along  the  Flint  and  Chattahoochee  branches 
of  the  Appalachicola,  were  not  unfavorable  to  re- 
moval. 

When  Governor  Troup,  of  Georgia,  determined  to 
survey  the  ceded  lands,  he  was  notified  that  the 
president  expected  Georgia  to  abandon  the  survey 
until  it  could  be  done  consistently  with  the  provisions 

*  Phillips,  "  Georgia  and  State  Rights,"  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc, 
Report  1901,  II.,  34. 


i826]  CONSTITUTIONAL    REACTION  311 

of  the  treaty.  Although  the  treaty  had  given  the 
Creeks  until  vSeptember,  1826,  to  vacate,  Governor 
Troup  informed  General  Gaines,  who  had  been  sent 
to  preserve  peace,  that,  as  there  existed  "  two  inde- 
pendent parties  to  the  question,  each  is  permitted  to 
decide  for  itself, ' '  and  he  announced  that  the  line 
would  be  run  and  the  survey  effected.  The  defiant 
correspondence  which  now  ensued  between  the  gov- 
ernor and  the  war  department  doubtless  reflected 
the  personal  hot-headedness  of  Troup  himself,  but 
Georgia  supported  her  governor  and  made  his  de- 
fiances effective.  He  plainly  threatened  civil  war 
in  case  the  United  States  used  force  to  prevent  the 
survey.' 

On  investigation.  President  Adams  reached  the 
conclusion  that  the  treaty  was  wrongfully  secured, 
and  gave  orders  for  a  new  negotiation.  This  result- 
ed in  the  treaty  of  Washington,  in  January,  1826, 
supplemented  by  that  of  March,  1826,  by  which  the 
Creek  Indians  ceded  all  of  their  lands  within  the 
state  except  a  narrow  strip  along  the  western  border. 
This  treaty  abrogated  the  treaty  of  Indian  Springs 
and  it  provided  that  the  Indians  should  remain 
in  possession  of  their  lands  until  January  i,  1827. 
Throughout  the  whole  of  these  proceedings  Georgia 
was  bitterly  incensed.  Claiming  that  the  treaty  of 
Indian  Springs  became  operative  after  its  ratification, 

'Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  3,  pp.  25-31; 
Phillips,  "  Georgia  and  State  Rights,"  in  Am.  Hist.  Assoc,  Re- 
port 1901,  II.,  58-60;  40  (map). 


312  RISE    OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1827 

and  that  the  lands  acquired  by  it  were  thereby  in- 
corporated with  Georgia  and  were  under  her  sov- 
ereignty, the  state  denied  the  right  of  the  general 
government  to  reopen  the  question.  "Ge<3rgia," 
said  Troup,  "is  sovereign  on  her  own  soil,"  and  he 
entered  actively  upon  the  sur\'ey  of  the  tract  without 
waiting  for  the  date  stipulated  in  the  new  treaty. 
When  the  surveyors  entered  the  area  not  ceded  by 
the  later  treaty,  the  Indians  threatened  to  use  force 
against  them,  and  at  the  beginning  of  1827  another 
heated  controversy  arose.  The  president  warned 
the  governor  of  Georgia  that  he  should  employ,  if 
necessary,  "  all  the  means  under  his  control  to  main- 
tain the  faith  of  tlie  nation  by  carrying  the  treaty 
into  effect."  Having  done  this,  he  submitted  the 
whole  matter  in  a  special  message  to  Congress.^ 

"From  the  first  decisive  act  of  hostility,"  wrote 
Troup  to  the  secretary  of  war,  "you  will  be  con- 
sidered and  treated  as  a  public  enemy";  and  he  an- 
nounced his  intention  to  resist  any  military  attack 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  "  the  unblushing 
allies  of  the  savages."^  He  thereupon  made  prep- 
arations for  liberating  any  surveyors  who  might  be 
arrested  by  the  United  States,  and  for  calling  out 
the  militia.  In  the  House  of  Representatives,  a  com- 
mittee recommended  the  purchase  of  the  Indian  title 
to  all  lands  in  Georgia,  and,  until  such  cession  were 
procured,  the  maintenance  of  the  treaty  of  Wash- 

'  February  5, 1827.    "RichaTdson,  Messages  and  Papers,  II.,  370. 
2  Harden,  Troup,  485. 


1H30]  CONSTITUTIONAL    REACTION  313 

ington  by  all  necessary  and  constitutional  means; 
but  the  report  of  the  Senate  committee,  submitted 
by  Benton,  supported  the  idea  that  the  ratification 
of  the  treaty  of  Indian  'Springs  vested  the  title 
to  the  lands  in  Georgia,  and  reached  the  conclusion 
that  no  preparations  should  be  made  to  coerce  the 
state  by  military  force.  In  November,  1827,  the 
Creeks  consented  to  a  treaty  extinguishing  the  last 
of  their  claims,  and  the  issue  was  avoided. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Cherokees  in  the  north- 
western portion  of  the  state  gave  rise  to  a  new  prob- 
lem by  adopting  a  national  constitution  (July  26, 
1827)  and  asserting  that  they  constituted  one  of  the 
sovereign  and  independent  nations  of  the  earth,  with 
complete  jurisdiction  over  their  own  territory  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  authority  of  any  other  state.*  This 
bold  challenge  was  met  by  Georgia  in  the  same  spirit 
which  guided  her  policy  in  regard  to  the  Creek  lands. 
The  legislature,  by  an  act  of  December  20,  1828,  sub- 
jected all  white  persons  in  the  Cherokee  territory  to 
the  laws  of  Georgia,  and  provided  that  in  1830  the 
Indians  also  should  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  the 
state.  Thus  Georgia  completed  her  assertion  of  sov- 
ereignty over  her  soil  both  against  the  United  States 
and  the  Indians.  But  this  phase  of  the  controversy 
was  not  settled  during  the  presidency  of  Adams. 

*  Text  in  Exec.  Docs.,  23  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  III.,  No.  91  (Serial  No. 
273);  Ames,  State  Docs,  on  Federal  Relations,  No.  3,  p.  36;  see 
also  House  Reports,  19  Cong.,  2  Sess.  No.  98. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  TARIFF  OF  ABOMINATIONS  AND  THE 
SOUTH  CAROLINA  EXPOSITION 

(1827-1828) 

WHILE  the  slavery  agitation  was  inflaming  the 
minds  of  South  Carolina  and  her  sister  states 
of  the  cotton  region,  and  while  Georgia,  half  a  fron- 
tier state,  was  flinging  defiance  at  the  general  gov- 
ernment when  it  checked  her  efforts  to  complete 
the  possession  of  her  territory,  the  reopening  of  the 
tariff  question  brought  the  matter  of  state  resistance 
to  a  climax. 

The  tariff  of  1824  was  unsatisfactory  to  the  woollen 
interests.  In  the  course  of  the  decade  there  had 
been  an  astonishing  increase  of  woollen  factories  in 
New  England,^  and  the  strength  of  the  protective 
movement  grew  correspondingly  in  that  section.  By 
a  law  which  took  effect  at  the  end  of  1824,  England 
reduced  the  duty  on  wool  to  a  penny  a  pound,  and 
thus  had  the  advantage  of  a  cheap  raw  material  as 
well  as  low  wages,  so  that  the  American  mills  found 
themselves  placed  at  an  increasing  disadvantage. 
Under  the  system  of  ad  valorem  duties,  the  English 

*  See  chap,  ii.,  above. 


i827]         TARIFF   AND   NULLIFICATION  315 

exporters  got  their  goods  through  the  United  States 
custom-house  by  such  undervaluation  as  gravely 
diminished  even  the  protection  afforded  by  the  tariff 
of  1824;  and  the  unloading  of  large  quantities  of 
woollen  goods  by  auction  sales  brought  a  cry  of  dis- 
tress from  New  England.  This  led  to  an  agitation 
to  substitute  specific  duties  in  place  of  ad  valorem, 
and  to  apply  to  woollens  the  minimum  principle  al- 
ready applied  to  cottons.  At  the  same  time  sheep- 
raisers  were  demanding  increased  protection. 

Early  in  1827,  therefore,  Mallory,  of  Vermont,  a 
state  which  was  especially  interested  in  wool-growing, 
brought  into  the  House  of  Representatives  a  report 
of  the  committee  on  manufactures,  proposing  a  bill 
which  provided  three  minimum  points  for  woollen 
goods:  with  certain  exceptions,  those  that  cost  less 
than  40  cents  a  square  yard  were  to  be  rated  as 
though  they  cost  40  cents  in  imposing  the  tariff; 
those  which  cost  between  40  cents  and  $2. 50  were 
reckoned  at  $2.50;  and  those  which  cost  between 
$2.50  and  $4,  at  $4.  Upon  unmanufactured  wool, 
after  1828,  a. duty  of  forty  per  cent,  was  imposed,  and 
all  wool  costing  between  10  and  40  cents  a  pound 
was  to  be  rated  at  40  cents.* 

The  political  situation  exercised  a  dominant  influ- 
ence upon  the  tariff  legislation  at  this  time.  As  the 
campaign  between  Adams  and  Jackson  was  approach- 
ing its  end,  the  managers  of  Jackson  faced  the  prob- 
lem of  how  to  hold  together  the  forces  of  the  south, 

*  Stan  wood,  Tariff  Controversies,  I.,  255. 


3i6  RISE   OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1827 

which  were  almost  to  a  man  opposed  to  tariff  legisla- 
tion, and  those  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  where 
protection  was  so  popular.  Jackson  himself,  as  we 
have  seen,  announced  his  belief  in  the  home-market 
idea,  and,  although  with  some  reservations,  commit- 
ted himself  to  the  support  of  the  protective  system. 

While  the  forces  of  Jackson  were  not  harmonious 
on  the  tariff,  neither  was  there  consistency  of  in- 
terests between  the  friends  of  protection  in  New 
England,  the  middle  states,  and  the  west.  If  New 
England  needed  an  increased  tariff  to  sustain  her 
woollen  factories,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  parts  of 
New  York  were  equally  interested  in  extending  the 
protection  to  wool,  the  raw  material  of  the  New 
England  mills.  If  the  New  England  shipping  inter- 
ests demanded  cheap  cordage,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Kentucky  planters  were  ever  ready  to  plead  for 
an  increased  duty  upon  the  hemp  which  made  the 
ropes.  If  iron  foundries  were  developing  among 
the  towns  of  the  New  England  coast,  where  ships 
brought  in  the  raw  material  from  Sweden  and  from 
England,  the  Pennsylvania  forges  found  an  opposite 
interest  in  their  desire  for  an  increased  duty  on  pig- 
iron  to  protect  the  domestic  product. 

The  history  of  the  tariff  has  always  been  the  his- 
tory of  the  struggle  to  combine  local  and  opposing 
interests  into  a  single  bill.  Such  conditions  fur- 
nished opportunity  for  the  clever  politicians  who 
guided  Jackson's  canvass  to  introduce  discordant 
ideas  and  jealousy  between  the  middle  states,  the 


i827]         TARIFF    AND    NULLIFICATION  317 

west,  and  New  England.  The  silence  of  the  New 
England  president  upon  the  question  of  the  tariff, 
the  "selfishness  of  New  England's  policy,"  and  the 
inducements  offered  to  the  middle  region  and  the  west 
to  demand  protection  for  their  special  interests  were 
all  successfully  used  to  break  the  unity  of  the  tariff 
forces.  Even  protectionist  Pennsylvania,  and  Ken- 
tucky, home  of  the  champion  of  the  American  sys- 
tem, gave  a  large  share  of  their  votes  against  the 
bill.  Although  it  passed  the  House  (February  10, 
1827),  the  Senate  laid  it  on  the  table  by  the  casting- 
vote  of  Vice-President  Calhoun,  who  was  thus  com- 
pelled to  take  the  responsibility  of  defeating  the 
measure,*  and  to  range  himself  permanently  with 
the  anti-tariff  sentiment  of  his  section. 

Hardly  had  the  woollens  bill  met  its  fate  when  the 
rival  forces  began  to  reorganize  for  another  struggle. 
From  the  south  and  from  the  shipping  interests  of 
New  England  came  memorials  in  opposition  to  the 
tariff  and  in  support  of  the  theory  of  free-trade.^  At 
a  convention  which  met  in  Harrisburg,  Pennsylva- 
nia, July  30,  1827,  a  hundred  delegates  from  thirteen 
states  met  to  promote  the  cause  of  protection.  Find- 
ing it  necessary  to  combine  the  various  interests, 
the  convention  recommended  increased  duties  both 
upon  wool  and  woollen  goods,  and  the  establishment 
of   the   minimum  system.     This   combination  was 

*  See  the  account  of  Van  Buren's  tactics  at  this  time,  in  Stan- 
wood,  Tariff  Controversies,  I.,  258;  and  Calhoun,  Works,  III.,  47. 
2  Am.  State  Papers,  Finance,  V.  passim. 


3i8  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1827 

made  possible  by  the  proposal  of  effectively  counter- 
balancing the  prohibitory  duties  on  wool  by  such  use 
of  the  minimum  device  as  would  give  a  practical 
monopoly  of  the  American  market  to  the  domestic 
manufacturers  in  the  class  of  goods  in  which  they 
were  most  interested.  To  conciliate  other  sections, 
the  convention  adopted  the  plan  of  an  additional 
duty  on  hammered  bar-iron,  hemp  and  flax,  and 
various  other  products.* 

When  the  twentieth  Congress  met,  in  December, 
1827,  Stevenson,  of  Virginia,  defeated  the  adminis- 
tration candidate,  Taylor,  of  New  York,  for  the 
speakership,  and  both  branches  of  Congress  and  the 
important  committees  were  put  in  the  hands  of  the 
opposition  to  Adams.  Rejecting  the  plan  of  the  Har- 
risburg  Convention,  the  House  committee  brought 
in  a  bill  framed  to  satisfy  the  producers  of  raw  ma- 
terial, wool,  hemp,  flax,  and  iron,  and  to  deny  the 
protection  desired  by  New  England.'  Protection 
was  afforded  to  raw  material  even  where  the  pro- 
ducers did  not  seek  it ;  and  in  some  important  cases 
high  duties  were  imposed  on  raw  material  not  pro- 
duced in  this  country.  The  essential  point  of  the 
provision  respecting  woollens  favored  by  the  Har- 
risburg  Convention  was  the  fixing  of  four  minimum 
points,  but  the  committee  on  manufactures  inter- 

»  Stanwood,  Tariff  Controversies,  I.,  264;  Niles'  Register, 
XXXII.,  369.  386,  XXXIII.,  187;  Elliott,  Tariff  Controversy,  239. 

2  Taussig,  Tariff  Hist.,  89-92;  Dewey,  Financial  Hist,  of  the 
U.  S.,  178-181. 


i828]        TARIFF    AND    NULLIFICATION  319 

posed  between  the  minimum  of  50  cents  and  that  of 
$2.50  a  minimum  of  $1,  which  effectively  withdrew 
protection  from  the  woollen  goods  most  largely  man- 
ufactured in  New  England.  Moreover,  the  com- 
mittee refused  to  establish  the  increasing  rate  of 
duty  asked  for  at  Harrisburg. 

Calhoun  afterwards  explained  the  attitude  of  the 
southern  representatives  as  follows :  *  Having  before 
them  the  option  of  joining  New  England  in  securing 
amendments  satisfactory  to  the  section,  or,  by  re- 
sisting all  amendment,  to  force  New  England  to 
join  with  the  south  in  rejecting  the  bill,  which  would 
involve  Adams  in  the  responsibility  for  its  defeat, 
they  chose  the  latter  alternative.  Assurances  were 
given  them  by  Jackson  men  that  the  two  tariff  inter- 
ests would  not  be  united  by  mutual  concession  in  the 
last  stages  of  the  discussion  to  insure  the  passage  of 
the  bill;  and  so  the  south  consistently  threw  its 
weight  against  the  passage  of  amendments  modify- 
ing this  designedly  high  tariff.  "We  determined," 
said  McDufffe  later,  "  to  put  such  ingredients  in  the 
chalice  as  would  poison  the  monster,  and  commend 
it  to  his  own  lips."  At  the  same  time  the  Jackson 
men  in  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  the  west  shift- 
ed their  votes  so  as  to  deprive  New  England  of  her 
share  in  the  protective  system.  When  an  amend- 
ment was  proposed,  striking  out  the  duty  on  molas- 

'  Calhoun,  Works,  III.,  49;  cf.  Houston,  Nullification  in  S.  C., 
34,  for  similar  explanations  by  Mitchell  and  McDuffie;  Clay, 
Works  (Colton's  ed.),  II.,  13;  Jenkins,  Wright,  53. 

VOL.    XIV. —  22 


320  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1828 

ses — an  article  essential  to  the  rum  distilleries  of  New 
England,  but  obnoxious  to  the  distillers  of  whiskey 
in  Pennsylvania  and  the  west — Pennsylvania  and  a 
large  share  of  the  delegation  from  Ohio,  New  York, 
Indiana,  and  Kentucky  voted  with  most  of  the 
south  against  the  amendment.  On  the  motion  to 
substitute  the  proposals  of  the  Harrisburg  Conven- 
tion with  respect  to  wool  and  woollens,  almost  all 
of  the  delegation  of  Pennsylvania,  and  a  large  por- 
tion of  that  of  New  York  and  Kentucky,  as  well 
as  the  members  from  Indiana  and  Missouri  and  the 
south,  opposed  the  proposition.  Thus  the  interests 
of  the  seaboard  protectionists  were  overcome  by 
the  alliance  between  the  middle  states  and  the  south, 
while  the  west  was  divided. 

Bitter  as  was  the  pill,  it  was  swallowed  by  enough 
of  the  eastern  protectionists  to  carry  the  act.  The 
vote,  105  to  94,  by  which  the  measure  passed  in 
the  House*  (April  22,  1828)  showed  all  of  the  south 
in  opposition,  with  the  exception  of  certain  districts 
in  Maryland  and  the  western  districts  of  Virginia, 
while  the  great  area  of  the  states  of  the  Ohio  Valley 
and  the  middle  region  was  almost  a  unit  in  favor. 
The  lower  counties  of  New  York  along  the  Hudson 
revealed  their  identity  with  the  commercial  interests 
by  opposing  the  bill.  New  England  broke  in  two; 
Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  and  Connecticut  voted 
almost  unanimously  in  favor  of  the  proposition; 
while  Maine  cast  a  unanimous  vote  in  opposition. 
"  See  map. 


i828]        TARIFF   AND   NULLIFICATION  321 

Rhode  Island  was  divided,  and  in  Massachusetts  only 
two  districts — that  of  the  Berkshire  wool-growing  re- 
gion and  the  Essex  county  area — supported  the  bill. 

In  the  Senate,  an  amendment  was  passed  making 
the  duty  on  woollens  an  ad  valorem  rate  of  forty-five 
per  cent.,  and  this,  together  with  political  considera- 
tions, induced  some  New  England  friends  of  Adams  to 
support  the  measure.  Webster  defended  his  action  in 
voting  for  the  bill  by  declaring  that  New  England 
had  accepted  the  protective  system  as  the  established 
policy  of  the  government,  and  after  1824  had  built  up 
her  manufacturing  enterprises  on  that  basis.  Never- 
theless, in  the  final  vote  in  the  Senate,  the  five  northern 
members  who  opposed  were  all  from  New  England. 

Thus  the  "tariff  of  abominations,"  shaped  by  the 
south  for  defeat,  satisfactory  to  but  a  fraction  of  the 
protectionists,  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  26  to  21  in 
the  Senate,  May  13,  1828,  and  was  concurred  in  by 
the  House.  John  Randolph  did  not  greatly  overstate 
the  case  when  he  declared  that  "  the  bill  referred  to 
manufactures  of  no  sort  or  kind,  but  the  manufact- 
ure of  a  President  of  the  United  States  " ;  for,  on  the 
whole,  the  friends  of  Jackson  had,  on  this  issue,  taken 
sides  against  the  friends  of  Adams,  and  in  the  effort 
to  make  the  latter  unpopular  had  produced  a  tariff 
which  better  illustrated  sectional  jealousies  and  polit- 
ical intrigues  than  the  economic  policy  of  the  nation.* 

*  Register  of  Debates,  20  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  IV.,  pt.  ii.,  2472;  Niles' 
Register,  XXV.,  55-57,  analyzes  the  votes  to  show  the  pohtical 
groupings;  cf.  Taussig,  Tariff  History,  loi,  102. 


322  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1828 

The  tariff  agitation  of  1827  and  the  passage  of  the 
act  of  1828  inflamed  the  south  to  the  point  of  con- 
flagration. John  Randolph's  elevation  of  the  stand- 
ard of  revolt  in  1824  now  brought  him  credit  as  the 
prophet  of  the  gospel  of  resistance.  "  Here  is  a  dis- 
trict of  country,"  he  had  proclaimed,  in  his  speech 
on  the  tariff  in  that  year,  "  extending  from  the  Pa- 
tapsco  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  from  the  Alleghany  to 
the  Atlantic;  a  district  .  .  .  which  raises  five-sixths 
of  all  the  exports  of  this  country  that  are  of  home 
growth.  ...  I  bless  God  that  in  this  insulted,  op- 
pressed and  outraged  region,  we  are  as  to  our  coun- 
sels in  regard  to  this  measure,  but  as  one  man.  We 
are  proscribed  and  put  to  the  ban ;  and  if  we  do  not 
feel,  and  feeling,  do  not  act,  we  are  bastards  to  those 
fathers  who  achieved  the  Revolution."  * 

It  was  South  CaroHna,  rather  than  Virginia,  how- 
ever, that  led  in  violent  proposals.*  Dr.  Cooper,  an 
Englishman,  president  of  South  Carolina  College,  had 
long  been  engaged  in  propagating  the  Manchester 
doctrines  of  laissez-faire  and  free-trade,  and  he  was 
greeted  with  applause  when  he  declared  that  the 
time  had  come  to  calculate  the  value  of  the  Union.' 
Agricultural  societies  met  to  protest  and  to  threaten. 
TurnbuU,  an  aggressive  and  violent  writer,  in  a  stir- 
ring series  of  papers  published  in  1827,  under  the 
title  of   The  Crisis,  over  the  signature  of  Brutus, 

^Annals  of  Cong.,  18  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  II.,  2360. 
2  Houston,  Nullification  in  S.  C. 
*  Niks'  Register,  XXXIII.,  59. 


i828]        TARIFF   AND   NULLIFICATION  323 

sounded  the  tocsin  of  resistance.  He  repudiated  the 
moderation  and  nationalism  of  "  Messrs.  Monroe  and 
Calhoun,"  and  stood  squarely  on  the  doctrine  that 
the  only  safety  for  the  south  was  in  the  cultivation 
of  sectionalism.  "  In  the  Northern,  Eastern,  Middle, 
and  Western  States,"  said  he,  "the  people  have  no 
fears  whatever  from  the  exercise  of  the  implied 
powers  of  Congress  on  any  subject;  but  it  is  in  the 
South  alone  where  uneasiness  begins  to  manifest  it- 
self, and  a  sensitiveness  prevails  on  the  subject  of 
consolidation."  "The  more  National  and  the  less 
Federal  the  government  becomes,  the  more  certainly 
will  the  interest  of  the  great  majority  of  the  States 
be  promoted,  but  with  the  same  certainty,  will 
the  interests  of  the  South  be  depressed  and  de- 
stroyed." 

On  their  return  from  the  session  of  1828,  the 
South  Carolina  delegation  added  fuel  to  the  fire.  In 
a  caucus  of  the  members,  held  shortly  after  the  pas- 
sage of  the  tariff,  proposals  were  even  made  for  the 
delegation  to  vacate  their  seats  in  Congress  as  a  pro- 
test, and  in  this  temper  they  returned  to  their  state.* 
]\IcDuffie  told  his  constituents  that  there  was  no  hope 
of  a  change  of  the  system  in  Congress;  that  the 
southern  states,  by  the  law  of  self-preserv^ation,  were 
free  to  save  themselves  from  utter  ruin ;  and  that  the 
government  formed  for  their  protection  and  benefit 
was  determined  to  push  every  matter  to  their  annihi- 
lation.   He  recommended  that  the  state  should  levy 

^  Niles'  Register,  XXXV.,  184,  202. 


324  RISE   OF   THE   NEW  WEST  [1811 

a  tax  on  the  consumption  of  northern  manufactured 
goods,  boycott  the  hve-stock  of  Kentucky,  and  wear 
homespun;  and  he  closed  by  drawing  a  comparison 
between  the  wrongs  suffered  by  the  colonists  when 
they  revolted  from  Great  Britain  and  that  by  which 
the  south  was  now  oppressed/ 

Although  South  Carolina  and  all  of  the  staple- 
producing  section  except  Louisiana  and  Kentucky 
were  in  substantial  agreement  upon  the  iniquity  of 
the  tariff,  yet,  in  respect  to  the  remedy,  they  were 
widely  at  variance.  Protest  had  proven  ineffective; 
proposals  of  resistance  by  force,  plans  for  a  southern 
convention,  and  threats  of  disunion  were  rife.' 

Such  was  the  situation  which  confronted  Calhoun 
when  he  returned  from  Washington  and  found  that 
his  section  had  passed  beyond  him.  The  same  con- 
siderations that  had  aroused  this  storm  of  opposi- 
tion also  had  their  effect  upon  him.  But  he  was 
still  hopeful  that,  by  the  election  of  Jackson,  a 
cotton-planter,  the  current  of  northern  power  might 
be  checked ;  and  he  looked  forward  also  to  the  pros- 
pect that  he  himself  might  eventually  reach  the 
presidential  chair.  Before  him  lay  the  double  task 
of  uniting  himself  to  his  friends  in  South  Carolina, 
lest  he  lose  touch  with  the  forces  of  his  own  section, 
and  of  framing  a  platform  of  opposition  that  should 
be  consistent,  logical,  and  defensible;  and,  at  the 
same  time,  of  providing  some  mode  of  avoiding  the 

^Niles'  Register,  XXXIII.,  339:  cf.  ihid.,  XXXV.,  82,  131. 
2  Houston,  Nullification  in  S.  C,  49-52,  73-75. 


i828]        TARIFF   AND   NULLIFICATION  325 

forcible  revolution  that  the  hotheads  of  his  section 
threatened  as  an  immediate  programme. 

It  was  by  the  very  processes  of  national  growth 
that  the  seaboard  south  now  found  itself  a  minority 
section  and  the  home  of  discontent.  As*  the  rich 
virgin  soil  of  the  Gulf  plains  opened  to  cotton  culture, 
the  output  leaped  up  by  bounds.  In  181 1  the  total 
product  was  eighty  million  pounds;  in  182 1  it  was 
one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  millions;  in  1826  it 
was  three  hundred  and  thirty  millions.  Prices  fell  as 
production  increased.  In  1816  the  average  price  of 
middling  uplands  in  New  York  was  nearly  thirty 
cents,  and  South  Carolina's  leaders  favored  the  tariff; 
in  1820  it  was  seventeen  cents,  and  the  south  saw 
in  the  protective  system  a  grievance;  in  1824  it  was 
fourteen  and  three-quarters  cents,  and  the  South- 
Carolinians  denounced  the  tariff  as  unconstitutional. 
When  the  woollens  bill  was  agitated  in  1827,  cotton 
had  fallen  to  but  little  more  than  nine  cents,  and  the 
radicals  of  the  section  threatened  civil  war. 

Moreover,  the  price  of  slaves  was  increased  by  the 
demands  of  the  new  cotton-fields  of  Alabama,  Mis- 
sissippi, and  the  rest  of  the  southwest,  so  that  the 
Carolina  planter  had  to  apply  a  larger  capital  to  his 
operations,  while,  at  the  same  time,  the  cheap  and 
unexhausted  soil  of  these  new  states  tended  still 
further  to  hamper  the  older  cotton  areas  in  their 
competition,  and  the  means  of  transportation  from 
the  western  cotton-fields  were  better  than  from  those 
of  South  Carolina.     By  devoting  almost  exclusive 


326  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1828 

attention  to  her  great  staple,  South  Carolina  had 
made  herself  dependent  on  the  grain  and  live-stock 
of  the  west  and  the  manufactures  of  the  nor:h  or  of 
England ;  and,  when  the  one  crop  from  which  she 
derived  h'er  means  of  purchasing  declined  in  value, 
the  state  was  plunged  in  unrelieved  distress.  Never- 
theless, the  planters  of  the  old  south  saw  clearly  but 
two  of  the  causes  of  their  distress :  the  tariff,  which 
seemed  to  them  to  steal  the  profits  of  their  crops; 
and  internal  improvements,  by  which  the  proceeds 
of  their  indirect  taxes  were  expended  in  the  west 
and  north.  Their  indignation  was  also  fanned  to  a 
fiercer  flame  by  apprehensions  over  the  attitude  of 
the  north  towards  slavery. 

In  the  summer  of  1828,  Calhoun  addressed  him- 
self to  the  statement  of  these  grievances  and  to  the 
formulation  of  a  remedy.  After  consultation  with 
leading  men  in  his  home  at  Fort  Hill,  he  was  ready 
to  shape  a  document  which,  nominally  a  report  of  a 
legislative  committee  (since  it  was  not  expedient  for 
the  vice-president  to  appear  in  the  matter),  put  in 
its  first  systematic  form  the  doctrine  of  nullification. 
This  so-called  Exposition,'  beginning  with  the  un- 
constitutionality and  injustice  of  protection,  devel- 
oped the  argument  that  the  tax  on  imports,  amount- 
ing to  about  twenty-three  million  dollars,  fell,  in 
effect,  solely  on  the  south,  because  the  northern 
sections  recompensed  themselves  by  the  increased 
profits  afforded  to  their  productions  by  protection; 
*  Calhoun,  Works,  VI.,  1-59. 


i828]        TARIFF   AND    NULLIFICATION  327 

while  the  south,  seeking  in  the  markets  of  the  world 
customers  for  its  staples,  and  obliged  to  purchase 
manufactures  and  supplies  in  return,  was  forced  to 
pay  tribute  on  this  exchange  for  the  benefit  of  the 
north.  "  To  the  growers  of  cotton,  rice,  and  tobacco,  •-' 
it  is  the  same  whether  the  Government  takes  one-  ' 
third  of  what  they  raise,  for  the  liberty  of  sending  the 
other  two-thirds  abroad,  or  one-third  of  the  iron,  salt, 
sugar,  coffee,  cloth  and  other  articles  they  may  need 
in  exchange  for  the  liberty  of  bringing  them  home." 
Estimating  the  annual  average  export  of  domes- 
tic produce  at  fifty-three  million  dollars,  the  Expo- 
sition attributed  to  the  planting  section  at  least 
thirty-seven  million  dollars — over  two-thirds  of  the 
total  exports;  the  voting  power  of  this  section  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  was  but  seventy-six, 
while  the  rest  of  the  Union  had  one  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  members.  Thus,  one-third  of  the  po- 
litical Union  exported  more  than  two-thirds  of  the 
domestic  products.  Assuming  imports  to  equal  ex- 
ports, and  the  tariff  of  1828  to  average  forty-five 
per  cent.,  the  south  would  pay  sixteen  million  six 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  as  its  share  of 
contributions  to  the  national  treasury.  Calhoun 
then  presented  the  ominous  suggestion  that,  if  the 
staple  section  had  a  separate  custom-house,  it  would 
have  for  its  own  use  a  revenue  of  sixteen  million 
six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  from  foreign 
trade  alone,  not  counting  the  imports  from  the  north, 
which  would  bring  in  millions  more. 


J 


328  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1828 

"  We  are  mere  consumers,"  he  declared,  "  the  serfs 
of  the  system — out  of  whose  labor  is  raised,  not  only 
the  money  paid  into  the  Treasury,  but  the  funds  out 
of  which  are  drawn  the  rich  rewards  of  the  manu- 
facturer and  his  associates  in  interest." 

Taking  for  granted  that  the  price  at  w^hich  the 
south  could  afford  to  cultivate  cotton  was  determined 
by  the  price  at  which  it  received  its  supplies,  he 
argued  that,  if  the  crop  could  be  produced  at  ten 
cents  a  pound,  the  removal  of  the  duty  would  enable 
the  planter  to  produce  it  at  five  and  one-half  cents, 
and  thus  to  drive  out  competition  and  to  add  three 
or  four  hundred  thousand  bales  annually  to  the  pro- 
duction, with  a  corresponding  increase  of  profit. 
The  complaints  of  the  south  were  not  yet  exhausted, 
for  the  Exposition  went  on  to  point  out  that,  in  the 
commercial  warfare  with  Europe  which  protection 
might  be  expected  to  engender,  the  south  would  be 
deprived  of  its  market  and  might  be  forced  to  change 
its  industrial  life  and  compete  with  the  northern 
states  in  manufactures.  The  advantages  of  the  north 
would  probably  insure  it  an  easy  victory;  but  if  not, 
then  an  attack  might  be  expected  on  the  labor  sys- 
tem of  the  south,  in  behalf  of  the  white  workmen 
of  the  north. 

W^hat,  then,  was  the  remedy?  Calhoun  found 
this,  although  in  fragmentary  form,  ready  to  his 
hand.  The  reserved  rights  of  the  sovereign  states 
had  long  been  the  theoretical  basis  of  southern  re- 
sistance.    In  the  argumentation  of  such  writers  as 


i828]        TARIFF   AND   NULLIFICATION  329 

Taylor,  Turnbull,  and  Judge  Roane,  not  to  mention 
Madison  and  JclTerson ;  in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky 
resolutions,  there  was  material  for  the  system;  but 
as  yet  no  one  had  stated  with  entire  clearness  the 
two  features  which  Calhoun  made  prominent  in  his 
Exposition.  First,  he  made  use  of  reasoning  in 
sharp  contrast  to  that  of  the  statesmen  of  the  days 
of  the  American  Revolution,  by  rejecting  the  doc- 
trine of  the  division  of  sovereignty  between  the 
states  and  the  general  government.*  Clearly  differ- 
entiating government  from  sovereignty,  he  limited 
the  application  of  the  division  to  the  powers  of  gov- 
ernment, and  attributed  the  sovereignty  solely  to 
the  people  of  the  several  states.  This  conception  of 
the  unity  of  sovereignty  was  combined  with  the 
designation  of  the  Constitution  as  articles  of  com- 
pact between  sovereign  states,  each  entitled  to  deter- 
mine whether  or  not  the  general  government  had 
usurped  powers  not  granted  by  the  Constitution,  and 
each  entitled  peacefully  to  prevent  the  operation  of 
the  disputed  law  within  its  own  limits,  pending  a 
decision  by  the  same  power  that  could  amend  the 
Constitution — namely,  three-fourths  of  the  states. 

These  doctrines  were  brought  out  with  definiteness 
and  with  the  deliberate  intention  of  creating  from 
them  a  practical  governmental  machinery  to  be 
peacefully  applied  for  the  preservation  of  the  rights 
of  the  states.  In  effect,  therefore,  Calhoun,  the  logi- 
cian of  nationalism  in  the  legislation  that  followed 

*  McLaughlin,  in  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  V.,  482,  484. 


33©  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1828 

the  War  of  181 2,  became  the  real  architect  of  the 
system  of  nuUification  as  a  plan  of  action  rather  than 
a  protest.  As  it  left  his  hands,  the  system  was  essen- 
tially a  new  creation.  In  the  Exposition,  the  doc- 
trine was  sketched  only  in  its  larger  lines,  for  it  was 
in  later  documents  that  he  refined  and  elaborated  it. 
It  was  intended  as  a  substitute  for  revolution  and 
disunion — but  it  proved  to  be  the  basis  on  which 
was  afterwards  developed  the  theory  of  peaceable 
secession.  Calhoun  did  not  publicly  avow  his  au- 
thorship or  his  adhesion  to  nullification  until  three 
years  later. 

The  rallying  of  the  party  of  the  Union  in  South 
Carolina  against  this  doctrine,  the  refusal  of  Georgia, 
Virginia,  and  other  southern  states  to  accept  it  as 
the  true  exposition  of  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky 
resolutions,  the  repudiation  of  it  by  the  planting 
states  of  the  southwest,  all  belong  to  the  next  volume 
of  this  series. 

Yet  the  Exposition  marks  the  culmination  of  the 
process  of  transformation  with  which  this  volume 
has  dealt.  Beginning  with  nationalism,  the  period 
ends  with  sectionalism.  Beginning  with  unity  of 
party  and  with  the  almost  complete  ascendency  of 
republicanism  of  the  type  of  Monroe,  it  ends  with 
sharply  distinguished  rival  parties,  as  yet  unnamed, 
but  fully  organized,  and  tending  to  differ  fundament- 
ally on  the  question  of  national  powers.  From  the 
days  when  South-Carolinians  led  in  legislation  for 
tariff  and   internal  improvements,  when  Virginians 


i828]         TARIFF    AND    NULLIFICATION  331 

promoted  the  Colonization  Society,  and  Georgians 
advocated  the  policy  of  mitigating  the  evils  of  sla- 
very by  scattering  the  slaves,  we  have  reached  the 
period  when  a  united  south  protests  against  "  the 
American  system,"  and  the  lower  south  asserts  that 
slavery  must  not  be  touched — not  even  discussed. 

In  various  southern  states  the  minority  counties 
of  the  coast,  raising  staples  by  slave  labor,  had  pro- 
tected their  property  interests  against  the  free  ma- 
jority of  farmers  in  the  interior  counties  by  so  ap- 
portioning the  legislature  as  to  prevent  action  by 
the  majority.  Now  the  same  conditions  existed  for 
the  nation.  The  free  majority  embraced  a  great 
zone  of  states  in  the  north  and  west ;  the  south,  a 
minority  section,  was  now  seeking  protection  against 
the  majority  of  the  Union  by  the  device  of  state 
sovereignty ;  and  Calhoun  made  himself  the  po- 
litical philosopher  of  the  rights  of  this  minority 
section,  applying  to  the  nation  the  experience  of 
South  Carolina.* 

Still  the  great  currents  of  national  growth  ran  on. 
New  England  was  achieving  unity  and  national  feel- 
ing as  a  manufacturing  region,  and  Webster  w-as 
developing  those  powers  which  were  to  make  him 
the  orator  of  consolidation.  While  the  leaders  of 
the  middle  states  played  the  game  of  personal  poli- 
tics, their  people  and  those  of  the  growing  west 
were  rallying  around  the  man  w^ho  personified  their 
passion  for  democracy  and  nationalism — the  fiery 

*  Calhoun,  Works,  400-405. 


332  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1828 

Jackson,  who  confused  sectional  opposition  to  the 
government  with  personal  hostility  to  himself.  This 
frontiersman  was  little  likely  to  allow  political  meta- 
physics, or  even  sectional  suffering,  to  check  his  will. 
And  on  the  frontier  of  the  northwest,  the  young 
Lincoln  sank  his  axe  deep  in  the  opposing  forest. 


CHAPTER    XX 
CRITICAL   ESSAY   ON   AUTHORITIES 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL    AIDS 

THE  authorities  characterized  in  the  Critical  Essays  of 
Babcock's  Rise  of  American  Nationality,  MacDonald's 
Jacksonian  Democracy ,  and  Hart's  Slavery  and  Abolition 
{American  Nation,  XIII.,  XV.,  XVI.),  include  most  of  the 
general  authorities,  and  need  not  be  repeated  here  in  detail. 
In  addition,  account  should  be  taken  of  several  indexes  to 
government  documents:  L.  C.  Ferrell,  Tables  .  .  .  and  An- 
notated Index  (1902);  two  by  J.  G.  Ames:  Fittding  List 
(1893)  and  Check  List  (1895);  J.  M.  Baker,  Finding  List 
( 1 900-1 901);  the  Index  to  tfw  Reports  of  .  .  .  Committees  of 
the  House  (1887);  and  Index  to  Reports  of  .  .  .  Committees 
of  the  Senate  (1887);  Ben  Perley  Poore,  Descriptive  Cata- 
logue of  Government  Publications  (1885);  L.  P.  Lane,  Aids 
in  the  Use  of  Government  Publications  (American  Statistical 
Association,  Public ations,V\\.  (1900),  40-57;  L.  C.  Ferrell, 
"Public  Documents  of  the  United  States "  {Library  Journal, 
XXVI.,  671);  Van  Tyne  and  Leland,  Guide  to  tlic  Archives 
of  tfic  Government  of  tlie  United  States  in  Washington  (Car- 
negie Institution,  Publications,  No.  14,  1904).  For  bibliog- 
raphy of  state  official  issues,  see  R.  R.  Bowker  [editor], 
State  Publications:  a  Provisional  List  of  the  Official  Publica- 
tions of  the  Several  States  of  the  United  States  from  their 
Organization  (3  vols.,  issued  1899 -1905);  see  also  J.  N. 
Lamed,  Literature  of  American  History  (1902),  7-13;  and 
I.  S.  Bradley,  in  American  Historical  Association,  Report, 
1896,  I.,  296-319,  a  bibliography  of  documentary  and  news- 
paper material  for  the  Old  Northwest. 


334  RISE    OF   THE    NEW    WEST  [1819 

GENERAL  SECONDARY  WORKS 

The  general  histories  of  the  period  1819-1829  almost 
without  exception  extend  over  earlier  or  later  fields,  and 
are  described  in  earlier  or  later  volumes  of  this  series.  To 
the  usual  list,  James  Schouler,  J.  B.  McMaster,  George 
Tucker,  H.  E.  Von  Hoist,  J.  P.  Gordy,  may  be  added:  S. 
Perkins,  Historical  Sketches  of  tlic  United  States,  from  the 
Peace  of  181 5  to  i8jo  (1830),  the  work  of  a  careful  contem- 
porary. 

BIOGRAPHIES 

The  most  serviceable  biographies  in  this  period  can  be 
found  through  the  lists  in  Channing  and  Hart,  Guide  to  the 
Study  of  American  History  (1896),  §  25.  The  volumes  of 
the  Atnerican  Statesmen  series  are  accurate  and  well  written, 
especially  Morse's  John  Quincy  Adams,  Schurz's  Henry  Clay, 
Adams's  John  Randolph,  Roosevelt's  Thomas  H.  Benton, 
McLaughlin's  Lr.vis  Cass. 

SECTIONAL    HISTORY 

Among  the  bibliographies  useful  for  attacking  the  mass 
of  local  and  state  histories  for  this  period  are  the  following: 
R.  R.  Bowker,  State  Publications  (New  York,  1899,  1902, 
1905);  A.  P.  C.  Griffin,  Bibliography  of  Historical  Societies 
of  the  United  States  (American  Historical  Association,  Re- 
ports, 1890,  1892,  1893). 

New  England. — The  history  of  this  section,  since  the 
Revolution,  has  been  neglected,  but  indications  of  its  im- 
portance appear  in  Justin  Winsor,  Memorial  History  of  Bos- 
ton (4  vols.,  1 880-1 882),  HI.,  IV.,  and  I.  B.  Richman,  Rhode 
Island:  a  Study  in  Separatism  (1905).  M.  Louise  Greene, 
Tlw  Development  of  Religious  Liberty  in  Connecticut  (1905), 
deals  with  the  toleration  movement.  The  various  histori- 
cal societies  print  documentary  material;  but,  for  the  most 
part.  New  England's  activity  in  this  decade  must  be  sought 
in  original  material,  biographies,  travels,  scattered  mono- 
graphs, and,  in  fragments,  in  state  histories. 


1829] 


AUTHORITIES  335 


Middle  SxATES.-The  state  and  local  histories  of  the 
middle  region  are  more  satisfactory  on  this  period,  but  the 
political  life  must  be  sought  chiefly  in  biographies;  and  the 
economic  and  social  conditions  in  the  scattered  material 
elsewhere  cited  in  this  bibliography.  J.  G.  Wilson.  Memo- 
rial Ilistorv  of  the  City  of  New  York  (4  vols  1891-1893); 
and  Scharf  and  Westcott,  History  of  Philadelphia  (3  vols.. 
1884).  are  serviceable  accounts  of  the  development  of  the 
great  cities  of  the  section. 

The  South.— Virginia  has  been  neglected  in  this  period 
but  the  travellers  afford  interesting  material;  and  a  good 
view  of  plantation  life  is  T.  C.  Johnson,  Life  and  Letters  of 
Robert   Lewis   Dabney    (1903)-     For   North   Carolina,    the 
literature  is  cited  in  S.  B.  Weeks,  Bibliography  of  the  His- 
torical Literature  of  North  Carolina   (^895).     Two  mono- 
graphs by  J.   S.   Bassett,   Anti-Slavery  Leaders  of  North. 
Carolina  [Johns  Hopkins   University  Studies   XYl  ^0^6), 
and  History  of  Slavery  in  North  Carolma  {ibtd.,  XVII.,  Nos. 
7    8)    are  especially  important   for  the  up-country.     W. 
E   Dodd   Life  of  Nalhamd  Macon  (1903).  is  useful  on  this 
oeriod      South  Carolina  conditions  are  shown  in  R.  Mills, 
Statistics  of  South  Carolina  (1826);    and  W.  A.  Schaper. 
Sectionalism  and  Representation  in  South  Carolina  (Amer- 
ican Historical  Association,  i^c'porf,   1900.  I.).     Georgia  is 
depicted  in  U.  B.  PhilHps,  Georgia  and  State  Rights  {tbtd., 
1 001    II  )•  [G   R.  Gilmer],  Sketches  of  Some  of  the  First  Set- 
tlers ^of  Upper  Georgia  (1855) ;   and  [A.  B.  Longstreet],  Geor- 
gia Scenes  (last  edition,  1897),  the  latter  made  up  of  rollick- 
in<-  character-sketches.     Among  the  many  travellers  useful 
(after  criticism)  for  the  South  and  Southwest  may  be  men- 
tioned theDukeofSaxe-Weimar,Murat,Paulding,Hodgson, 
and  Mrs    Royall.     Correspondence  illustrating  Mississippi 
conditions  is  printed  in  J.  F.  H.  Claiborne  Life  a^id  Corre- 
spondence of  John  A .  Quitman  (2  vols.,  i860).     Two  lists  by 
T  M   Owen  Bibliography  of  Alabama  (American  Historical 
Association,' i^eporf,  1897);  and  Bibliography  of  Mississippi 
(ibid     1889   I  ),  open  a  wealth  of  southwestern  material. 
For  Louisiana,  there  are  various  popular  histories  of  New 


VOL.    XIV.— 23 


336  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1819 

Orleans;  and  A.  Fortier,  History  of  Louisiana  (1904),  III.; 
S.  D.  Smedes,  Memorials  of  a  Southern  Planter  [Thomas 
Dabney],  (1887,  also  1890),  is  highly  valuable  in  the  de- 
veloped opening  of  the  Gulf  area.  One  of  the  best  pictures 
of  southwestern  conditions  is  Lincecum's  "Autobiography" 
(so  called),  in  the  Mississippi  Historical  Society,  Publica- 
tions, Vni.  W.  G.  Brown,  Lower  South  in  American  His- 
tory (1902),  is  illuminative. 

The  West. — The  material  for  the  West  is  scattered,  the 
general  histories  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  failing  to  deal  ex- 
tensively with  settlement.  John  B.  McMaster,  History  of  the 
People  of  the  United  States  (1883-1900),  IV.,  chap,  xxxiii., 
and  v.,  chap,  xlv.,  give  good  accounts  of  the  westward 
movement.  B.  A.  Hinsdale,  Old  Northwest  (2  vols.,  1888, 
1899),  is  scholarly,  but  brief  on  this  period.  W.  H.  Vena- 
ble,  Beginnings  of  Literary  Culture  in  the  Ohio  Valley  (1891), 
is  important.  Of  especial  value  are  the  travellers,  gazet- 
teers, etc.,  among  which  the  following  are  exceptionally 
useful:  Timothy  Flint,  Recollections  of  the  Last  Ten  Years 
(1826) ;  Timothy  Flint,  History  and  Geography  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley  (2  vols.,  2d  edition,  1832) ;  four  books  by  J.  Hall, 
viz. :  Letters  from  the  West  (1828),  Legends  of  the  West  (1833 
and  1869),  Notes  on  the  Western  States  (1838),  Statistics  of 
the  West  (1836);  Ohio  Navigator  (1821  and  many  other  edi- 
tions); J.  M.  Peck,  Guide  for  Emigrants  (1831);  H.  S.  Tan- 
ner, View  of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  (1834).  All  of 
these,  of  course,  must  be  used  critically. 

Among  the  contemporaneous  state  histories,  T.  Ford, 
History  of  Ulinois  (1854);  J.  Reynolds,  My  Own  Times 
(1854-1855,  also  1879),  though  unreliable  in  detail,  have  a 
value  as  material  on  pioneer  conditions.  The  historical 
societies  of  the  western  states  abound  in  old  settlers'  ac- 
counts. W.  C.  Howells,  Recollections  of  Life  in  Ohio  (1895), 
is  a  gem.  P.  G.  Thomson,  Bibliography  of  Ohio  (1880).  is 
the  key  to  an  extensive  literature.  There  is  no  good  his- 
tory of  Kentucky  in  this  period;  but  J.  Phelan,  History  of 
Tennessee  (1888),  is  excellent.  Lives  of  Clay,  Jackson,  and 
Benton  all  aid  in  understanding  the  region. 


1829]  AUTHORITIES  337 

The  Far  West. — H.  M.  Chittenden,  The  American  Fur 
Trade  of  the  Far  V^^st  (3  vols.,  1902),  is  excellent.  The 
larger  histories  of  the  Pacific  states,  viz.:  H.  H.  Bancroft, 
Works;  Hittell,  California;  and  Lyman,  Oregon,  are  char- 
acterized by  Garrison,  Westward  Expansion  {American  Na- 
tion, XVII.).  The  publications  of  the  Oregon  Historical 
Society  and  the  Quarterly  of  the  Texas  Historical  Society 
are  extremely  useful.  D.  G.  Wooten  [editor],  Comprehensive 
History  of  Texas  (2  vols.,  1899),  has  material  on  settlement 
in  this  period.  G.  P.  Garrison,  Texas  (1903),  is  an  excellent 
little  book.  Brief  accounts  of  exploration  in  this  period 
are  in  E.  C.  Semple,  American  History  and  Us  Geographic 
Conditions  (1903);  and  R.  G.  Thwaites,  Rocky  Mountain 
Exploration  ( 1 904) .  J.  Schafer,  History  of  the  Pacific  North- 
west (1905),  and  G.  W.  James,  In  and  about  the  Old  Mis- 
sions of  California  (1905),  are  useful  brief  presentations  of 
conditions  on  the  coast.  For  all  this  field  the  H.  H.  Ban- 
croft library,  now  the  property  of  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia, is  the  great  collection  of  documentary  material. 
Illustrative  books  by  contemporaries  are:  R.  H.  Dana, 
Two  Years  before  the  Mast  (1849  and  other  editions),  giving 
California  life;  W.  Irving,  Adventures  of  Captain  Bonne- 
ville (1849),  giving  Rocky  Mountain  life;  and  J.  Gregg, 
Commerce  of  the  Prairies;  or,  the  Journal  of  a  Santa  Fe 
Trader  (2  vols.,  1844,  also  in  Thwaites,  Early  Western  Trav- 
els, XIX.,  XX.). 

HISTORIES    OF    PARTIES    AND    POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS 

Charles  McCarthy,  The  Antimasonic  Party  (American  His- 
torical Association,  Report,  1902,  I.),  sets  a  high  standard  as 
a  monographic  party  history;  C.  H.  Rammelkamp  gives  a 
detailed  study  of  the  Campaign  of  1824  in  New  York  (in 
ibid.,  1904,  pp.  175-202);  all  of  the  biographies  of  the  con- 
temporary statesmen  deal  with  the  parties  of  this  period; 
and  J.  D.  Hammond,  History  of  Political  Parties  in  the 
State  of  New  York  (2  vols.,  1852),  is  a  good  history  by  a 
contemporary.     U.   B.   Phillips,  Georgia  and  State  Rights 


338  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1S19 

(American  Historical  Association,  Report,  1901,  H.),  gives 
a  modern  treatment  of  state  politics. 

On  political  institutions  the  following  are  particularly 
useful:  Edward  Stanwood,  History  of  the  Presidency  (1898) ; 
M.  P.  Follett,  The  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
(1896) ;  L.  G.  McConachie,  Congressional  Committees  (1898) ; 
C.  R.  Fish,  The  Civil  Service  and  the  Patronage  {Harvard 
Historical  Studies,  XL,  1905);  F.  W.  Dallinger,  Nomina- 
tions for  Elective  Office  in  the  United  States  {ibid.,  IV.,  1897) ; 
J.  B.  McMaster,  Acquisition  of  Political,  Social,  and  Indus- 
trial Rights  of  Man  in  America  (1903). 

PUBLIC    DOCUMENTS 

For  a  list  of  records  of  debates,  legislative  journals, 
documents,  statutes,  judicial  decisions,  treaties,  and  the 
like,  see  the  "Critical  Essays"  in  the  neighboring  volumes, 
and  in  Channing  and  Hart,  Guide,  §  30. 

WORKS    OF    AMERICAN    STATESMEN 

To  the  various  editions  of  the  works  of  James  Monroe, 
Henry  Clay,  Daniel  Webster,  John  C.  Calhoun,  Thomas 
Jefferson,  James  Madison,  Rufus  King,  described  in  other 
volumes  of  this  series,  may  be  added  John  Quincy  Adams, 
Memoirs:  Comprising  Portions  of  His  Diary  from  lygs  to 
1848  (edited  by  Charles  Francis  Adams,  12  vols.,  1874- 
1877).  The  diary  is  unusually  full,  and  abounds  in  valuable 
material  for  understanding  the  politics  of  the  period  and  the 
character  of  Adams.  He  was  biased  and  harsh  in  his  judg- 
ment of  contemporaries,  but  conscientious  in  his  record. 
The  Adams  papers  are  now  in  the  private  archives  of  the 
family  at  Quincy. 

For  statesmen  of  lesser  distinction,  see  W.  W.  Story,  Life 
and  Letters  of  Joseph  Story  (2  vols.,  185 1);  L.  G.  Tyler, 
Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers  (3  vols.,  1884,  also  1896). 
A  collection  of  De  Witt  Clinton's  letters  was  published 
in  Harper's  Magazine,  L.,  409,  563,  and  other  letters  and 


1829]  AUTHORITIES  339 

papers  arc  in  the  followinj^:  David  Hosack,  Memoir  of  De 
Witt  Clinton  (1829);  W.  C.  Campbell,  Life  and  Writings  of 
De  Witt  Clinton  (1849);  James  Renwick,  Life  of  De  Witt 
Clinton  (1854).  There  is  no  collection  of  Crawford's  works; 
he  is  said  to  have  destroyed  his  papers;  a  few  letters  re- 
main, some  of  them  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  U.  B.  Phillips 
(University  of  Wisconsin).  In  E.  B.  Washbume  [editor], 
Edwards  Papers  (1884),  and  N.  W.  Edwards,  History  of  Illi- 
nois and  Life  and  Times  of  Ninian  Edwards  (1870),  are  im- 
portant letters  illustrating  national  as  well  as  western  poli- 
tics; see  also  the  letters  of  Senator  Mills  of  Massachusetts, 
in  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Proceedings,  ist  series, 
XIX.,  12-53;  and  those  of  Marshall,  Kent,  Story,  and  Web- 
ster, in  ibid.,  2d  series,  XIV.,  320  et  seq.,  398,  412  etseq.  A 
collection  of  Macon's  letters  in  this  decade  is  in  North  Caro- 
lina University, /a  m(?5  Sprnnt  Historical  Monographs,  No.  2. 
Literary  men  and  journalists  are  described  by  Herbert 
B.  Adams,  Life  and  Writings  of  J ared  S parks  (2  vols.,  1893) ; 
John  Binns,  Recollections  of  His  Life,  Written  by  Himself 
(1854) ;  Amos  Kendall,  Autobiography  (edited  by  W.  Stick- 
ney,  1872),  valuable  for  Dartmouth  College  life  and  for  Ken- 
tucky in  this  period;  Thurlow  Weed,  Autobiography  (1883), 
useful  also  for  western  New  York;  E.  S.  Thomas,  Reminis- 
cences of  the  Last  Sixty-five  Years  (2  vols.,  1840),  editor  in 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  and  in  Cincinnati;  William 
Wijiston  Seaton  of  the  National  Intelligencer:  a  Biographical 
Sketch  (187 1),  contains  useful  letters  by  various  persons 
from  Washington;  The  John  P.  Branch  Historical  Papers 
of  Randolph  -  Macon  College,  Nos.  2  and  3  (1902,  1903), 
contain  some  letters  and  a  biography  of  Thomas  Ritchie, 
editor  of  the  Richmond  Enquirer. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 

In  the  group  of  autobiographies,  reminiscences,  etc., 
Thomas  H.  Benton,  Thirty  Years'  View ;  or,  A  History  of 
the  Working  of  the  American  Government,  1820  - 1850  (2 
vols.,  1854),   is   the  most  important:   as  a  member  of  the 


340  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1819 

Senate,  Benton  was  active  and  influential,  and,  despite 
his  positive  character,  he  aims  at  fairness;  Nathan  Sargent, 
Public  Men  and  Events  [1817-1853],  (2  vols.,  1875),  is  made 
up  of  chatty  sketches,  with  an  anti-Jackson  bias;  Josiah 
Quincy,  Figures  of  the  Past  (1901),  pen-pictures  of  men 
of  the  period;  B.  F.  Perry,  Reminiscences  of  Public  Men 
(two  series:  ist,  1883;  2d,  1889),  anecdotal  views  of  South 
Carolinians;  S.  G.  Goodrich,  Recollections  of  a  Lifetime;  or. 
Men  and  Things  I  Have  Seen  (2  vols.,  1886). 

M.\NUSCRIPT    COLLECTIONS 

Manuscript  collections  are  located  in  the  reports  of  the 
Historical  Manuscripts  Commission,  published  by  the  Amer- 
ican Historical  Association  in  its  annual  Reports;  and  in 
Justin  Winsor,  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America, 
VIII.  (1889).  The  Library  of  Congjess  contains  important 
manuscripts  of  Madison  (calendared  in  Bureau  of  Rolls  and 
Library,  Department  of  State,  Bulletin,  IV.);  of  Jefferson 
(ibid.,  VI.,  VIII.,  X.);  Monroe  (indexed  in  ibid.,  II.),  and  in 
W.  C.  Ford  [editor],  Papers  of  James  Monroe  (1904);  in- 
dexes of  the  manuscripts  of  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  are  in 
progress.  In  the  New  York  Public  Library  are  collections 
of  correspondence  of  various  statesmen  of  the  period  (New 
York  Public  Library,  Bulletin,  V.,  306  et  seq.),  including 
Monroe  (calendared  in  ibid.,  V.,  316,  VII.,  210,  247-257); 
Jackson  (ibid.,  IV.,  154-162,  188-198,  292-320,  V.,  316); 
Calhoun  (ibid..  III.,  324-^^^);  James  Barbour  (ibid.,  V., 
316,  VI.,  22-34).  The  Clinton  Papers  arc  in  the  State 
Library  at  Albany,  N.  Y.  (American  Historical  Associa- 
tion, Report,  1898,  p.  578).  The  papers  of  Senator  Mahlon 
Dickerson,  of  New  Jersey,  including  letters  from  impor- 
tant statesmen  of  the  period,  are  in  the  possession  of  Will- 
iam Nelson,  corresponding  secretary  of  the  New  Jersey 
Historical  Society.  The  correspondence  of  Senator  W.  P. 
Mangum,  of  North  Carolina,  including  letters  from  Clay, 
Webster,  etc.,  is  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  S.  B.  Weeks,  San 
Carlos,  Arizona.     The  papers  of  Vice-President  Tompkins 


1829I  AUTHORITIES  341 

in  the  State  Library  at  Albany  are  described  in  Albany 
Institute,  Transactions,  XI.,  223-240.  The  Plumer  papers 
are  in  the  New  Hampshire  Historical  Society. 

PERIODICALS 

The  newspapers  and  periodicals  constitute  indispensable 
sources.  For  the  former  the  followinj^  cataloj^ues  are  use- 
ful: Check  List  of  American  Newspapers  in  the  Library  of 
Congress  (1901);  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  Annotated 
Catalogue  of  IVcu's  pa  per  Files  (1899);  W.  F.  Poole  [editor], 
Index  to  Periodical  Literature  (1853  and  later  editions), 
renders  the  maj.jazines  of  the  period  accessible;  and  W.  B. 
Cairns,  Development  of  American  Literature  from  1815  to 
iSjj,  with  especial  Reference  to  Periodicals,  in  University  of 
Wisconsin,  Bulletin  {Literature  Series,  I.,  1898),  enumerates 
a  list  of  periodicals  not  indexed  in  Poole.  Easily  first  in 
importance  among  the  periodicals  useful  on  the  period  from 
1 819  to  1829  is  Niles'  Weekly  Register,  edited  by  Hezekiah 
Niles  (76  vols.,  1811-1849),  which  abounds  in  material,  po- 
litical, social,  and  economic ;  although  Niles  was  a  strong  pro- 
tectionist, he  was  also  fair-minded  and  conscientious  in  col- 
lecting information.  The  North  American  Revicnv  (Boston, 
begun  in  181 5  and  still  continues) ;  The  American  Quarterly 
Review  (Philadelphia,  1827-1837);  TJie  Southern  Review 
(Charleston,  1828-1832);  The  American  Annual  Register 
(New  York,  1825-1833).  The  Quarterly  Register  and  Jour- 
nal of  tlw  Americati  Education  Society  (i 829-1 843);  The 
Methodist  Magazine  (181 8-1 840);  The  Christian  Examiner 
(Boston,  1824-1869);  and  Christian  Monthly  Spectator 
(181 9-1 828),  are  examples  of  religious  and  educational  pub- 
lications. Among  periodicals  which  contain  articles  deal- 
ing with  the  decade,  although  published  later,  are  Tlie 
Democratic  Review,  of  which  the  first  number  appeared  in 
1837;  Hunt's  Merchants'  Magazine  and  Commercial  Review 
(first  volume,  1839);  and  D.  B.  De  Bow's  Commercial  Re- 
vieiv  of  tlie  South  and  West  (first  volume,  1846).  Among 
the  short-lived  magazines  of  the  West  are:   The  Western 


342  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1S19 

i?et;iew  (Lexington,  1 820-1 821);  The  Western  Monthly  Re- 
view (edited  by  Timothy  Flint,  Cincinnati,  182 7-1 830) ;  The 
Illinois  Monthly  Magazine  (edited  by  James  Hall,  1830- 
1831);  The  Western  Monthly  Magazine  (continuation  of 
the  former,  Cincinnati,  1833-1837). 

GAZETTEERS    AND    GUIDES 

Among  the  important  sources  for  understanding  the 
growth  of  the  country  are  various  descriptions,  gazetters, 
etc.  Of  the  many  books  of  this  class  may  be  mentioned 
the  following:  Emigrants'  Guide;  or.  Pocket  Geography  of  the 
Western  States  and  Territories  (Cincinnati,  181 8);  William 
Amphlett,  Emigrants'  Directory  of  the  Western  States  of  North 
America  (London,  1819);  D.  Blowe,  Geographical,  Commer- 
cial, and  Agricultural  View  of  the  United  States  (Liverpool, 
about  1820) ;  John  Bristed,  Resources  of  the  United  States  of 
America  (New  York,  1818);  8.  R.  Brown,  The  Western 
Gazetteer  (Auburn,  N.  Y.,  181 7);  J.  S.  Buckingham,  Amer- 
ica, Historical,  Statistical,  and  Descriptive  (New  York  and 
London,  1841);  J.  S.  Buckingham,  Eastern  and  Western 
States  (London,  1842);  J.  S.  Buckingham,  Slave  States 
(London,  1842);  William  Cobbett,  The  Emigrant's  Guide 
(London,  1830) ;  S.  H.  Collins,  The  Emigrant's  Guide  to  and 
Description  of  the  United  States  of  America  (Hull,  1830); 
Samuel  Cumings,  Western  Pilot  (Cincinnati,  1840) ;  E.  Dana, 
Geographical  Sketches  on  the  Western  Country  (Cincinnati, 
181 9);  William  Darby,  Emigrants'  Guide  to  Western  and 
SoiitJiivestcrn  States  and  Territories  (New  York,  1818);  Will- 
iam Darby,  Geographical  Description  of  the  State  of  Louisiana, 
the  Southern  Part  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  and  Territory 
of  Alabama  (New  York,  181 7);  Timothy  Flint,  Condensed 
Geography  and  History  of  the  Western  States  (2  vols.,  Cincin- 
nati, 1828);  Timothy  Hunt,  History  and  Geography  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley  (2  vols.,  Cincinnati,  1833);  F.  Hayward, 
The  New  England  Gazetteer  (3d  edition,  Boston,  1839);  D. 
Hewett,  The  American  Traveller  (Washington,  1025);  Isaac 
Holmes,  An  Account  of  the  United  States  of  America  (Lon- 


1829]  AUTHORITIES  343 

don,  1823);  Indiana  Gazetteer  (2d  edition,  Indianapolis, 
1833);  John  Kilbourne,  Ohio  Gazetteer  (Columbus,  181 9, 
1833);  Wm.  Kingdom,  ]r.,  America  and  the  British  Colonies 
(London,  1820);  W.  Lindsay,  View  of  America  (Hawick, 
1824);  E.  Mackenzie,  Historical,  Topographical,  and  De- 
scriptive View  of  the  United  States  (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
i8ig);  Joseph  Martin,  New  and  Comprehensive  Gazetteer  of 
Virginia  (Charlottesville,  1835);  John  Melish,  A  Geographi- 
cal Description  of  the  United  States  (Philadelphia,  181 6, 
1822,  1826);  John  Melish,  Information  and  Advice  to  Emi- 
grants to  the  United  States  (Philadelphia,  1819);  John 
Melish,  The  Travellers'  Directory  through  the  United  States 
(Philadelphia,  1815,  1819,  1822,  New  York,  1825);  Robert 
Mills,  Statistics  of  South  Carolina  (Charleston,  1826);  J.  M. 
Peck,  A  Guide  for  Emigrants  (Boston,  1831,  1837);  J.  M. 
Peck,  Neiv  Guide  to  the  West  (Cincinnati,  1848);  J.  M.  Peck, 
Gazetteer  of  Illinois  (Jacksonville,  1834;  Philadelphia,  1837); 
Abiel  Sherwood,  Gazetteer  of  the  State  of  Georgia  (3d  edition, 
Washington,  1837);  T.  Spofford,  Gazetteer  of  the  State  of 
Neiv  York  (New  York,  1824);  [H.  S.  Tanner,  publisher], 
Vietv  of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  (Philadelphia,  1834); 
[H.  S.  Tanner,  publisher],  Geographical,  Historical,  and 
Statistical  Vieiv  of  the  Central  or  Middle  United  States  (Phila- 
delphia, 1841);  D.  B.  Warden,  Statistical,  Political,  and 
Historical  Accou)it  of  the  United  States  of  North  America  (3 
vols.,  Edinburgh,  18 19.) 

TRAVELS 

The  life  of  this  period  is  illustrated  b}''  the  reports  of 
travellers ;  jDut  the  reader  must  remember  that  the  traveller 
carries  his  prejudices,  is  prone  to  find  in  striking  exceptions 
the  characteristics  of  a  region,  and  is  exposed  to  misinfor- 
mation by  the  natives;  many  of  these  travellers  are,  never- 
theless, keen  observers,  well  worth  attention,  and,  when 
checked  by  comparison  with  others,  they  are  a  useful 
source.  A  full  list  of  the  travels  bearing  on  the  West  and 
South  from  1819  to  1829  would  take  more  space  than  can 


344  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1819 

be  allotted  here.  Biblio.c^raphies  of  travels  in  the  Tnited 
States  may  be  found  in  Justin  Winsor,  Narrative  and  Criti- 
cal History  of  America  (1884-1889),  VIII.,  493;  Ckanning 
and  Hart,  Guide  to  American  History  (1896),  §  24:  W.  B. 
Bryan,  Bibliography  of  the  District  of  Columbia  (1900),  Ar- 
ticle "America"  (Senate  Document,  56  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  No. 
61);  P.  G.  Thomson,  Bibliography  of  Ohio^ (1880);  R.  G. 
Thwaites,  On  the  Storied  Ohio  (1897),  App.;  H.  T.  Tucker- 
man,  America  and  Her  Commentators  (1864) ;  B.C.  Steiner, 
Descriptions  of  Maryland  (Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies, 
XXII.,  No.  6.),  608-647.  The  most  important  collection  of 
travels  is  R.  G.  Thwaites  [editor].  Early  Western  Travels 
(i 748-1846),  to  be  completed  in  thirty  volumes  and  an 
analytical  index.  For  an  estimate  of  English  travellers, 
see  J.  B.  McMaster,  United  States,  V.,  chap,  xlviii.  A  list 
of  travels  in  the  period  1 820-1860  will  be  found  in  Albert 
Bushncll  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition  (American  Nation, 
XVI.),  chap.  xxii. 

SL.WERY,    COTTON,    .\ND    THE    MISSOURI    COMPROMISE 

For  works  on  slavery,  see  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition 
(American  Nation,  XVI.),  chap.  xxii.  The  general  histories, 
such  as  W.  H.  Smith,  Political  History  of  Slavery  (1903), 
and  G.  W.  Williams,  History  of  tJu-  Negro  Race  in  America 
(2  vols.,  1883),  leave  much  to  be  desired.  Among  the  most 
important  references  are  the  Reports  of  the  American  Col- 
onization Society;  J.  H.  T.  McPherson,  History  of  Liberia 
(Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  IX.,  No.  10.);  John  S. 
Bassett,  Anti- Slavery  Leaders  of  North  Carolina  (ibid., 
XVI.,  No.  6);  and  Slavery  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina 
(ibid.,  XVII.,  Nos.  7,  8);  H.  S.  Cooley,  Study  of  Slavery  in 
New  Jersey  (ibid.,  XIV.,  Nos.  9,  10);  S.  B.  Weeks,  Anti- 
Slavery  Sentiment  in  the  South  (Southern  History  Asso- 
ciation, Publications,  II.,  No.  2);  S.  B.  Weeks,  Southern 
Quakers  and  Slavery  (1896);  William  Bimey,  James  G. 
Birney  and  His  Times  (1890);  W.  II.  Collins,  Domestic 
Slave-Trade  (1904);   W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois,  The  Suppression  of 


1829]  AUTHORITIES  345 

the  African  Slave-Tradc  to  the  United  States  of  America 
(Harvard  Historical  Studies,  I.,  1896);  Mary  S.  Locke, 
Anti-Slavery  in  America  .  .  .  16 1 g-iHoS  {Radcliffe  College 
Monographs,  No.  11,  1901);  J.  P.  Dunn,  Indiana,  a  Re- 
demption from  Slavery  (1888);  N.  D.  Harris,  The  History 
of  Negro  Servitude  in  Illinois  (1904);  E.  B.  Washbumc, 
Sketch  of  Edward  Coles,  Second  Governor  of  Illinois,  and  of 
the  Slavery  Struggle  of  i82;^-4  (1882).  The  economic  his- 
tory of  slavery  can  be  written  only  after  much  mono- 
graphic work;  comi)are  U.  B.  Phillips,  "  Economic  Cost  of 
Slave- Holding  in  the  Cotton  Belt,"  in  Political  Science 
Quarterly,  XX.,  267. 

On  the  history  of  cotton,  see  M.  B.  Hammond,  Cotton 
Industry,  in  American  Economic  Association,  Publications, 
new  scries,  No.  i  (1897);  ^-  Von  Halle,  Baumwollproduktion 
(in  Schmoller,  Staats  und  Social-wissenschaftlichc  Forschun- 
gcii,  XV.);  E.  G.  Donnell,  History  of  Cotton  (1872);  J.  L. 
VVatkins,  Production  and  Price  of  Cotton  for  One  Hundred 
Years  (U.  S.  Department  of  Atn"iculture,  Division  of  Statis- 
tics, Miscellaneous  Series,  Bulletin,  No.  9,  1895). 

The  best  sketch  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  is  J.  A. 
Woodburn,  The  Historical  Significance  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise (American  Historical  Association,  Report,  1893,  pp. 
249-298).  Source  material  is  in  the  Annals  of  Congress;  the 
works  of  King,  Jefferson.  Benton,  and  J.  Q.  Adams,  above- 
mentioned;  and  also  Congressional  Globe,  30  Cong.,  2  Sess., 
App. ;   William  and  Mary  College  Quarterly,  X. 

STATE    SOVEREIGNTY 

On  the  reaction  towards  state  sovereignty,  documentary 
material  so  well  selected  as  to  have  the  effect  of  a  mono- 
graph is  in  H.  V.  Ames,  State  Documents  on  Federal  Rela- 
tions (1900-1905),  Nos.  3-5.  The  works  of  John  Taylor 
of  Caroline  are  essential,  especially  Construction  Construed 
(1820).  Tyranny  Unmasked  (1822),  and  New  Views  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  (1823);  Brutus  [R.  Turn- 
bull],  The  Crisis;  or.  Essays  on  the  Usurpations  of  the  Federal 


346  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1819 

Government  (1827),  is  equally  important.  Defence  of  a 
Liberal  Construction  of  the  Pmvcrs  of  Congress  as  regards 
Internal  Improvements,  etc.,  -with  a  Complete  Refutation  of 
the  Ultra  Doctrines  Respecting  Consolidation  and  State 
Sovereignty,  Written  by  George  M'Duffie,  Esq.,  in  the  Year 
182 1  over  tlw  Signature  ''One  of  the  People"  (1831),  is  an 
important  pamphlet  to  mark  the  extent  of  the  changing 
views  of  southern  leaders.  Judge  Spencer  Roane's  an- 
tagonism to  Marshall's  nationalizing  decisions  is  brought 
out  in  his  articles  in  Randolph  -  Macon  College,  John  P. 
Branch  Historical  Papers,  No.  2 ;  see  also  Jefferson,  Writ- 
ings (Ford's  edition),  X. ;  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
Proceedings,  2d  series,  XIV.,  327  (Marshall's  strictures  on 
Roane) ;  and  the  case  of  Cohens  vs.  Virginia,  in  6  Wheaton, 
264.  Calhoun's  "Exposition  of  1828"  is  in  his  Works,  VI., 
1-59.  Governor  Troup's  defiance  of  the  United  States  is  best 
given  in  E.  J.  Harden,  Life  of  George  M.  Troup  (1859),  con- 
taining many  of  his  letters.  T.  Cooper,  Consolidation,  an 
Account  of  Parties  (2d  edition,  1830,  and  in  Examiner,  II., 
86,  100),  is  a  South  Carolina  view.  The  best  monographs 
in  this  field  are  David  F.  Houston,  A  Critical  Study  of 
Nullification  in  South  Carolina  {Harvard  Historical  Studies, 
III.,  1893),  and  U.  B.  Phillips,  Georgia  and  State  Rights 
(American  Historical  Association,  Report,  1901,  II.). 

ECONOMIC    AND    SOCIAL    TOPICS 

Commerce  and  Trade. — For  this  period,  the  best  com- 
mercial authorities,  aside  from  government  documents,  are 
Timothy  Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the 
United  States  of  America  (1835),  and  W.  P.  Stems,  Foreign 
Trade  of  the  United  States,  1820-1840,  in  Journal  of  Political 
Economy,  VIII.,  34,  452.  See  also  Hazard's  United  States 
Commercial  and  Statistical  Register  (6  vols.,  1840-1842); 
Register  of  Pennsylvania  (16  vols.,  1828-1835);  J.  R. 
M'Culloch,  A  Dictionary,  Practical,  Theoretical,  and  His- 
torical, of  Commerce  and  Commercial  Navigation  (edited  by 
Henry  Vethake;    2  vols.,   1852);    John  MacGregor,  Com- 


1829]  AUTHORITIES  347 

mcrcial  Statistics  of  America :  a  Digest  of  Her  Productive  Re- 
sources, Commercial  Legislation,  Customs,  Tariffs,  Shipping, 
Imports  and  Exports,  Monties,  Weights,  and  Measures  (Lon- 
don, no  date).  On  internal  trade,  see  W.  F.  Switzler.  Report 
on  Internal  Commerce  of  the  United  States,  Treasury  Depart- 
ment, Bureau  of  Statistics,  submitted  January  30,  1888, 
pt.  ii.,  Document  No.  1039b;  Timothy  Flint,  History  and 
Geography  of  the  Mississippi  Valley;  and  H.  S.  Tanner 
[publisher],  View  of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  both  cited 
above. 

Navigation  and  Shipping. — See  the  above  and  the  fol- 
lowing: \V.  H.  Bates,  American  Navigation:  tJte  Political 
History  of  Its  Rise  and  Ruin,  and  the  Proper  Means  for  Its 
Encouragement  (1902);  W.  L.  Marvin,  Tlie  American  Mer- 
chant Marine :  Its  History  and  Romance  from  1620  to  igo2 
(1902);  D.  A.  Wells,  Our  Merchant  Marine  :  Hoiu  It  Rose, 
Increased,  Became  Great,  Declined,  and  Decayed  (1882).  In 
these  works  there  is  a  tendency  to  controversy. 

Finance. — The  best  manual  on  the  financial  history  of 
the  period  is  Davis  R.  Dewey,  Financial  History  of  the 
United  States  (1903),  clear  and  judicious,  with  full  bibli- 
ography. The  best  accounts  of  banking  are:  R.  C.  H. 
Catterall,  The  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States  (University 
of  Chicago,  Decennial  Publications,  2d  series,  II.,  1903);  W. 
G.  Sumner,  .4  History  of  Banking  in  the  United  States  (in  A 
History  of  Banking  in  All  the  Leading  Nations,  I.),  1896. 

Manufactures. — On  the  development  of  manufactures, 
see  C.  D.  Wright,  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States 
(1905);  William  Bagnall,  Textile  Industries  of  the  United 
States  (1893);  J.  L.  Bishop.  .4  History  of  American  Manu- 
factures from  1608  to  1S60  (3d  edition,  3  vols.,  1868) ;  S.  N.  D. 
North,  .4  Century  of  Wool  Manufacture  (Association  of  Wool 
Manufacturers,  Bulletin,  1894);  J.  M.  Swank,  History  of  the 
Mamifacture  of  Iron  (1884,  revised  1892);  Eleventh  Census 
of  the  United  States,  Report  on  Manufacturing  Industries 
(1890).  American  State  Papers,  Finance,  IN .;  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  Report,  1854-1S55  {Executive  Documents,  34 
Cong.,  I  Sess.,  No.  10).  86-92,  valuable  statistics. 


348  RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST  [1819 

The  Tariff. — For  the  history  of  the  tariff  in  the  decade, 
the  following  are  useful:  O.  L.  Elliott,  The  Tariff  Contro- 
versy in  the  United  States,  lySg-iSjj  (Leland  Stanford,  Jr., 
University,  Monographs,  History  and  Economics,  No.  i, 
1892);  Edward  Stanwood,  American  Tariff  Controversies  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century  (2  vols.,  1903) ;  F.  W.  Taussig,  Tariff 
History  of  the  United  States  (1888);  American  State  Papers, 
Finance,  III.-V.,  memorials  up  to  1828;  Edward  Young, 
Special  Report  on  the  Customs-Tariff  of  the  United  States 
(1872);  Committee  on  Finance,  U.  S.  Senate,  The  Existing 
Tariff  on  Imports  into  the  United  States,  etc.,  and  the  Free 
List,  togetJwr  with  Comparative  Tables  of  Present  and  Past 
Tariffs,  and  Other  Statistics  Relating  Thereto  {Senate  Reports, 
48  Cong.,  I  Sess.,  No.  1 2), cited  as  Tariff  Compilation  of  1884. 

Labor. — The  labor  movement  in  the  period  is  as  yet 
insufficiently  studied;  but  see  John  B.  McMaster,  History 
of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  V.;  and  R.  T.  Ely,  The 
Labor  Movement  in  America  (1886;  3d  edition,  1890);  G.  E. 
McNeill,  The  Labor  Movement,  the  Problem  of  To-Day  (1887) ; 
John  B.  McMaster,  Acquisition  of  the  Rights  of  Man  in  Amer- 
ica, above  mentioned ;  C.  D.  Wright,  The  Industrial  Evolu- 
tion of  the  United  States  (1895). 

Land. — On  the  land  question,  the  American  State  Papers, 
Public  Lands,  are  the  main  reliance.  See  also  Thomas 
Donaldson,  The  Public  Domain:  Its  History,  with  Statistics 
(Washington,  1884;  also  in  House  Miscellaneous  Documents, 
47  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  XIX.,  1882-1883);  Emerick,  The  Credit 
System  and  the  Public  Domain  (Vanderbilt  Southern  History 
Society,  Publications,  No.  3,  1899).  The  actual  operation 
of  the  land  system  may  be  studied  in  the  emigrant  guides 
and  works  of  travellers  previously  cited. 

INTERNAL    IMPROVEMENTS 

General  Views. — Upon  the  internal  improvements  of 
the  United  States  note  the  following:  [G.  Armroyd],  Con- 
nected Vieiv  of  the  Whole  Internal  Navigation  of  the  United 
States    (Philadelphia,    1826;     2d    edition,    1830);     G.    T. 


1829]  v\UTIiORITIES  349 

Poussin,  Travaiix  d' ameliorations  iutcricurs  des  Etats-Unis 
dc  1824  d  1831  (Paris,  1836);  S.  A.  Mitchell,  Compendium 
of  the  Internal  Improvements  of  the  United  States  (Philadel- 
phia, 1835) ;  Michel  Chevalier,  Society,  Manners,  and  Politics 
in  the  United  States  (Boston,  1839);  D.  Hewett,  The  Ameri- 
can Traveller;  or,  Natio)ial  Directory  Containing  an  Account 
of  all  the  Great  Post-Roads  and  Most  Important  Cross-Roads 
in  the  United  States  (Washington,  1825).  The  best  estimate 
of  the  significance  of  internal  improvements  in  this  period 
is  G.  S.  Callender,  "Early  Transportation  and  Banking 
Enterprises  of  the  States  in  Relation  to  the  Growth  of 
Corporations,"  in  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  XVII., 
3-54.  A  useful  history  of  federal  internal  improvement 
legislation  is  H.  G.  Wheeler,  History  of  Congress  (1848),  II., 
109-513.  J.  L.  Ringvvalt,  Development  of  Transportation 
Systems  in  the  United  States  (1888),  a  summary  but  valu- 
able account;  H.  V.  Poor,  Sketch  of  tlic  Rise  and  Progress 
of  Internal  Improvements,  in  his  Manual  of  the  Railroads  of 
the  United  States  for  1881. 

Official  Purlications.  —  Especially  significant  are: 
Niles'  Register,  XXXVI.,  168,  a  statement  of  the  amount  of 
money  expended  in  each  state  and  territory  upon  works  of 
internal  improvement  to  October  i,  1828;  J.  C.  Calhoun's 
report  on  carrying  out  the  general  survey  act  of  1824,  in  his 
Works,  v.,  137-147;  the  historical  survey  of  the  canals  of 
the  United  States,  Census  of  the  United  States,  1880,  IV.  In 
the  American  State  Papers,  Post-Office,  120,  is  the  Report 
of  the  Postmaster  -  General,  January,  1825,  giving  post 
routes,  frequency  of  mails,  and  cost  of  transportation.  See, 
for  statistical  data  on  internal  improvements.  River  and 
Harbor  Legislation  from  tjqo  to  i88y  {Senate  Miscellaneous 
Documents,  49  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  No.  91);  and  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  Statement  Showing  Laud  Grants  Made  by  Congress 
to  Aid  in  the  Construction  of  Railroads,  Wagon  Roads,  Canals, 
and  Internal  Improvements,  .  .  .  from  Records  of  the  General 
Land  Office  (1888). 

Constitutional  Aspects. — For  this  side  of  the  question, 
see  Joseph  Story,  Commentaries  on  the  Constitution  of  the 


350  RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST  [1819 

United  States  (2  vols.,  5th  edition,  1891);  James  Monroe,  Way 
of  the  Conduct  of  the  Executive  in  Foreign  Affairs  of  United 
States,  in  his  ]\'ritings,  VI.,  216-284,  and  in  J.  D.  Richardson, 
Messages  and  Public  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  II.,  144-183 
(1899);  E.  C.  Nelson,  "Presidential  Influence  on  the  Policy 
of  Internal  Improvements,"  in  Iowa  Journal  of  History  and 
Politics,  IV.,  3-69. 

Special  Monographs. — Among  the  more  useful  are  R. 
Mills,  Treatise  on  Inland  Navigation  (1820);  G.  W.  Ward, 
The  Early  Development  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal 
Project  {Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  XVII.,  431, 
1899);  C.  C.  Weaver,  History  of  Internal  Improvements  in 
North  Carolina  Previous  to  i860  (ibid.,  XXI.,  1903);  E.  J. 
Benton,  The  Wabash  Trade  Route,  in  the  Development  of  the 
Old  Northwest  (ibid.,  XXI.,  1903) ;  J.  S.  Young,  Political  and 
Constitutional  Study  of  the  Cumberland  Road  (University  of 
Chicago  Press,  1904),  is  badly  arranged,  but  useful;  T.  B. 
Searight,  Old  Pike  (Uniontown,  Pa.,  1894),  entertaining;  T. 
K.  Worthington,  Historical  Sketch  of  Finances  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  American  Economic  Association,  Publications,  II., 
126,  gives  a  good  sketch  of  the  internal  improvements  of 
that  state;  C.  McCarthy,  Antimasonic  Party,  in  American 
Historical  Association,  Report,  1902,  chaps,  viii.-x.,  shows 
the  political  influence  of  canal  schemes  in  Pennsylvania. 
For  Ohio  internal  improvements,  see  C.  N.  Morris,  Internal 
Improvements  in  Ohio,  in  American  Historical  Association, 
Papers,  III.,  107  (1889) ;  G.  W.  Dial,  in  Ohio  Archaeological 
and  Historical  Society,  Publications,  XIII.,  479;  C.  P. 
McClelland  and  C.  C.  Huntington,  History  of  tJie  Ohio 
Canals;  A.  B.  Hulbert,  Historic  Highways  of  America  (16 
vols.,  1902-1905),  including  IX.,  Watenuays  of  Westward 
Expansion ;  X.,  The  Ohio  River  and  Its  Tributaries;  XI., 
The  Cumberland  Road;  XII.,  Pioneer  Roads  and  Experiences 
of  Travellers;  XIII.,  XIV.,  Great  American  Canals  [Chesa- 
peake and  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  Erie],  useful,  but  not 
well  digested. 

The  best  sources  for  the  Erie  Canal  are  Laws  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  in  Relation  to  the  Erie  and  Champlain  Canals, 


1829]  AUTHORITIES  351 

together  with  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Canal  Commissioners 
(Albany,  1825),  and  the  succeedinj^  Reports  of  the  Canal 
Commissioners;  View  of  the  Grand  Canal  (pamphlet, 
Albany,  1825);  and  the  bioj^raphies  of  Clinton  by  Hosack 
and  Renwick  above  mentioned. 

FOREIGN    RELATIONS 

On  foreign  relations,  especially  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
see  C.  Seii^obos,  Political  History  of  Europe  since  1814 
(1899),  762,  for  bibliography  of  the  Holy  Alliance.  The 
following  serve  to  elucidate  British  policy:  H.  W.  V. 
Tempcrley,  Life  of  Canning  (1905) ;  A.  G.  Stapleton,  Politi- 
cal Life  of  the  Right-Honourable  George  Canning  (3  vols., 
1831);  E.  J.  Stapleton,  Some  Official  Correspondence  of 
George  Canning  (2  vols.,  1887);  Festing,  /.  //.  Frere  and 
His  Friends;  Memoirs  and  Correspondence  of  Viscount 
Castlereagh  (8  vols.,  1848-1851),  VII.;  and  Richard  Rush, 
Memoranda  of  a  Residence  at  tlic  Court  of  London  [181 7- 
1819],  (2d  edition,  1833),  and  Memoranda  of  a  Residence  at 
the  Court  of  London  .  .  .  from  18 ig  to  1825  (1845).  For 
Spanish  America,  see  F.  L.  Paxson,  Independence  of  the  South 
American  Republics  (1903),  an  excellent  sketch,  with  bibli- 
ography; J.  H.  Latan(5,  Diplomatic  Relations  of  the  United 
States  and  Spanish  America  (1900);  J.  M.  Callahan,  Cuba 
and  International  Relations  (1899).  On  the  genesis  of 
Monroe's  message  announcing  the  Doctrine,  the  best  survey 
is  in  the  two  articles  by  Worthington  C.  Ford,  John  Quincy 
Adams:  His  Connection  with  tlie  Monroe  Doctrine,  in  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society,  Proceedings,  2d  series,  XV. 
(1902),  373-436,  and  in  American  Historical  Review,  VII., 
676-696,  and  VIII.,  28-52.  W.  F.  Reddaway,  The  Mon- 
roe Doctrine  (1898;  2d  edition,  1906),  is  a  particularly 
lucid  and  valuable  study.  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  Foun- 
dations of  America)!  Foreign  Policy  (1901),  chap,  vii.;  John 
B.  Moore,  in  Harper's  Magazine,  CIX.,  857;  G.  Tucker, 
Monroe  Doctrine  (Boston,  1885);  and  D.  C.  Oilman,  James 
Monroe   (Boston,    1883),   are  other  useful  brief  accounts. 

VOL.   XIV. — 24 


352  RISE    OF    THE    NEW   WEST  [1819 

See  also  Frances  Wharton  [editor],  Digest  of  the  Interna- 
tional Laiv  of  the  United  States  (3  vols.,  1887),  I.,  superseded 
by  John  B.  Moore,  Digest  (5  vols.,  1906). 

On  the  Panama  Congress,  considerable  material  is  col- 
lected in  The  Congress  of  1826  at  Panama  {International 
American  Conference,  IV.,  Historical  Appendix  ,1890). 


-  li  S.  Govsnifneiit  property, 
i  IWf  M  Mm  FROM  m  SrjflN 

WHEN  REAr),  REIUKH   TO  LIBRaKV. 


INDEX 


Adams,  John,  and  Miranda,  201 ; 
death,  306. 

Adams.  J.  Q,  as  literary  states- 
man, 25;  on  southern  politi- 
cal genius,  65;    and  Oregon 
country,    127;     political    ap-' 
nrchensions  (1S20),  147;  and 
Missouri   struggle,    166,    T69, 
103;    on   slavery   and   seces- 
sion, 169;   political  character 
and  record  as  candidate,  177- 
180,    192-194,    256;    plan   of 
campaign,    194,    19S;    suspi- 
cious of  Latin  America,  204; 
first  policy  concerning,   204, 
212;    and  British  in  Oregon, 
207;      and     Russian    claims, 
208;     and    Cuba,    210,    282; 
and   Monroe    Doctrine,    217- 
221  ;     and    Greek    indepen- 
dence, 21S;  southern  support, 
247;    strength  as  candidate. 
249-251;      underrates    Jack- 
son's strength.  251;  and  cau- 
cus   nomination.    253;     and 
international     regulation     of 
slave-trade,     256;     electoral 
vote,    259.    260;     and    Clay- 
controlled     vote    in     House. 
261;     elected    president    by 
House.     262-264;      delicate 
position,  264,  266,  267;    and 
corrupt-bargain     cry,      267- 
270,  279;    non-partisan  cabi- 
net,   271;     refuses    to    build 
machine  by  patronage,  272- 
274;     formation    of    opposi- 


tion, 274;  imprudent  utter- 
ances on  loose  construction, 
275-277;  alienates  south, 
278;  believed  to  favor  eman- 
cipation, 279;  opposition  not 
united,  279;  attempt  to  re- 
strict patronage,  280;  and 
Panama  Congress,  281-285; 
union  of  opposition,  285;  and 
internal  improvements,  286, 
294;  begins  Chesapeake  and 
Ohio  Canal.  291;  and  West 
Indian  trade.  295;  and  Geor- 
gia-Creek aflfair,  310-312; 
and  tariff  of  1828,  317,  319- 
321;    diary.  338 

Agriculture,  New  England,  14- 
16;  southern  unification,  56, 
99;  southern  seaboard  de- 
cline, 57-59,  61,  325;  west- 
em.  loi.     Sec  also  Cotton. 

Alabama  admitted,  160.  See 
also  Southwest,  West. 

Alleghany  Mountains,  influence 
on  history.  224. 

Amelia  Island  affair,  203. 

American  Fur  Company,  activ- 
ity. 113,  120. 

American  system.  See  Inter- 
nal improvements,  TarifT. 

Aristocracy,  character  of  Vir- 
ginia, 59-61;  of  South  Caro- 
lina, 63. 

Arkansas,  territorial  govern- 
ment and  slavery,  156. 

Ashley,  W.  H.,  and  western  fur- 
trade,  1 19-12 1. 


354 


RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST 


Astor,    J.    J.,    fur-trade,    113; 

Astoria,  117. 
Astoria,  career,  117. 
Atkinson,    Henry,    expedition, 

127. 

Baldwin,    Henry,    on    tariff, 

143- 

Baltimore,  as  trade  centre,  28; 
and  internal  improvements, 
227,  290,  291;  railroad  proj- 
ect, 291 ,  292. 

Bank  of  United  States,  specula- 
tion, 136;  in  panic  of  18 19, 
136;  state  opposition,  137- 
140,  300. 

Banks,  Kentucky  land  bank, 
1^8. 

Barbour,  James,  speaker,  195; 
favors  Adams,  247;  secretary 
of  war,  271. 

Baylies,  Francis,  on  Oregon 
country,  130. 

Becknell,  William,  Santa  Fd 
trade,  124. 

Benton,  T.  H.,  champion  of  far 
west,  131 ;  and  Oregon  coun- 
try, 131-133;  on  Texas,  133; 
on  panic  of  1819,  137;  and 
public  lands,  141,  142,  286; 
and  Florida  treaty,  192;  on 
Georgia  -  Creek  affair,  313; 
bibliography,  334. 

Bibliographies  of  period  1820- 

1830,  333;    of  sectional  his- 

.tory,  334-336;  of  travels.  344- 

Binns,  John,  and  Adams's  re- 
movals, 273. 

Biographies  of  period  1820- 
1830.  334,  339. 

Birkbeck,  Morris,  on  western 
migration,  79. 

Bolivar,  Simon,  Spanish  Amer- 
ican revolution,  202. 

Bonneville,  B.  L.  E.,  explora- 
tion, 123. 

Boston  and  western  trade,  228. 

Bridger,  James,  at  Great  Salt 
Lake,  121. 


Brooks,  John,  as  partisan,  ig. 
Bryce,  James,  on  west,  68. 
Bviffalo  in  1830,  96. 

Cabinet,  Adams's,  271. 

Calhoun,  J.  C,  growing  section- 
alism, 7 ;  southern  leader,  66 ; 
and  far  west,  125;  political 
apprehensions  (1820),  147; 
and  Missouri  struggle,  169, 
193;  political  character  and 
record  as  candidate,  182-185, 
193;  candidacy  announced, 
(1822),  196;  Crawford's  op- 
position, 196;  sj'stem  of  in- 
ternal improvements,  230; 
congressional  canvass,  248; 
vice  -  presidency,  254,  260; 
defeats  woollens  bill  (1827), 
317;  Exposition,  324,  326- 
330;  bibliography,  340. 

California,  Spanish  occupation, 
117;  Russians  in,  118; 
Smith's  expeditions,  121; 
bibliography,  337^ 

Canals,  effect  of  Erie,  32-36, 
226;  Pennsylvania  system, 
38,  288;  Chesapeake  and 
0^0,289-292;  Ohio  system, 
292.  See  also  Internal  im- 
provements. 

Canning,  George,  and  Cuba, 
210;  and  Holy  Alliance,  212; 
overtures  to  America,  212- 
214;  and  French  disclaimer, 
214;  reception  of  overtures, 
215-217;  and  Monroe  Doc- 
trine, 221,  222. 

Canning,  Stratford,  and  claim 
to  Oregon,  207. 

Carroll.  Charles,  and  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  Railroad,  292. 

Cass,  Lewis,  expedition  (1820), 
114. 

Charleston,  social  character,  63. 

Cherokee  Indians,  antagonism 
of  pioneers,  115;  national 
constitution,  313;  Georgia's 
encroachments,  313. 


INDEX 


355 


Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal, 
project,  289-291 ;  beKun,29i. 

Chicago,  in  1830,  96;  fort  at, 
114. 

Chickasaw  Indians,  antagonism 
of  pioneers,  115. 

Choctaw  Indians,  antagonism 
of  pioneers,  115. 

Cincinnati,  in  1830,  97;  pork- 
packing,  97,  loi;  in  panic  of 
1819,  137. 

Cities,  western  (1830),  96-98. 
See  also  cities  by  name. 

Civil  service.  New  York  Council 
of  Appointment,  41;  four- 
year  tenure,  182;  Adams  re- 
fuses to  introduce  rotation, 
272;  or  make  removals,  273; 
agitation  against  presiden- 
tial patronage,  280. 

Clay,  Henry,  on  sectionalism,  7; 
on  tariff,  144,  23S;  and  Col- 
onization Society,  152;  and 
Missouri  struggle,  1^5.  167, 
168,  193;  political  character 
and  record  as  candidate,  185- 
188,  193;  and  Jackson's 
Seminole  camjjaign,  190;  and 
Florida  treaty,  192;  and 
Spanish  America,  204-206; 
and  Greek  independence, 
2i8;  and  Monroe  Doctrine, 
423;  on  internal  improve- 
ments, 234;  congressional 
canvass,  248;  electoral  vote 
(1824),  259,  260;  and  elec- 
tion in  House.  260-262;  and 
corrupt-bargain  cry,  267- 
270;  secretary  of  state.  269; 
and  Panama  Congress,  281; 
failures  in  foreign  affairs. 
297;  bibliography,  334. 

Cleveland  in  1S30,  96. 

Clinton,  DeWitt,  and  Erie 
Canal,  32;  as  politician,  43; 
presidential  hopes.  180;  cam- 
paign of  1824,  258;  declines 
English  mission,  272;  bibli- 
ography, 338.  340. 


Coal,  Pennsylvania  industry, 
^6.  38. 

Cobb,  T.  W.,  and  Missouri 
Compromise,  156;  on  elec- 
tion of  1824,  255. 

Cochrane,  Lord,  Spanish  Amer- 
ican revolution,  202. 

Cohens  vs.  Virginia,  301. 

Coles,     Edward,    and    slavery, 

Colombia,  designs  on  Cuba 
(1825),  282. 

Colonization  Society,  work,  152; 
southern  denunciation,  304, 
308. 

Commerce,  New  England  ship- 
ping, 12;  on  Erie  Canal,  34; 
development  of  New  York 
City,  35;  southern  exports, 
47.  327;  western  transporta- 
tion and  travel,  79-82,  99- 
103;  development  of  home 
market,  98,  224,  297;  Indian 
fur -trade,  113,  118-123; 
American  -  Santa  Fe,  124; 
American  disadvantages  in 
West  Indian,  294,  295; 
growth  of  Asiatic,  294;  re- 
moval of  discriminating  du- 
ties. 2C)6;  foreign,  lags,  296; 
statistics  (1820-1829),  296; 
bibliography,  ^46,  347.  See 
also  Internal  improvements, 
Tariff. 

Congregationalism,  loses  dom- 
inance in  New  England,  16- 
19;  division  and  modifica- 
tion. 24. 

Congress,  northern  dominance 
in  House.  154;  sectional  bal- 
ance in  Senate,  154. 

Fifteenth:  Missouri.  154- 
150;  Spanish  America.  205; 
internal  improvements,  229. 
Sixteenth:  public  lands.  85, 
141;  loans.  140;  retrench- 
ment, 140;  tariff.  143-147; 
Missouri,  160-168;  Spanish 
America,  206. 


356 


RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST 


Seventeenth:  Oregon  coun- 
try, 128-133;  ineffective, 
194;  internal  improvements, 
230-232. 

Eighteenth:  Monroe  Doc- 
trine, 223;  internal  improve- 
ments, 232-235;  tariff,  236- 
244;  nominating  caucus,  252- 
254;  presidential  election, 
260—264. 

Nineteenth:  and  Adams, 
266,  275,  279,  285;  corrupt- 
bargain  issue,  267-270,  279; 
executive  patronage,  280; 
Panama  Congress,  283-285; 
internal  improvements,  287, 
288;    tariff,  315-317. 

Twentieth:  land  grants, 
293;  foreign  trade,  296;  tar- 
iff. 318-321. 

Connecticut,  clerical  influence, 
16;  disestablishment,  18. 
See  also  New  England. 

Constitution,  slavery  in  terri- 
tories, 157;  conditional  ad- 
mission of  states,  158,  159, 
162;  internal  iiTiprovements, 
231.  2  33''  tariff^  240.  See 
also  State  rights. 

Cook,  D.  P.,  and  election  of 
1824,  262. 

Cooper,  Thomas,  tariff  protest, 
322. 

Cotton ,  effect  of  gin  ,45;  stimu- 
lus of  demand,  45;  westward 
spread,  46;  political  and  so- 
cial influence,  48,  49,  325; 
crop  (i 791-1834),  46;  ex- 
port, 47,  32^;  spread  to  south- 
west, 93;  bibliography,  345;. 

Council  of  Appointment,  New 
York,  41. 

Crawford,  W.  H.,  southern 
leader,  66;  political  charac- 
ter and  record  as  candidate, 
181,  182,  192,  255;  ascen- 
dency in  House  (182 1),  195; 
and  Calhoun's  candidacy, 
196;    and  Monroe,  196,  197; 


support  and  opposition,  245- 
248;  stroke  of  paralysis,  248; 
caucus  nomination  (1824), 
253;  electoral  vote,  260;  vote 
in  House,  263;  refuses  port- 
folio under  Adams,  271;  bib- 
liography, 339. 

Creek  Indians,  antagonism  of 
pioneers,  115;  menace  to 
Georgia,  309;  cession  (182 1), 
309;  Indian  Springs  treaty 
(1825),  310;  treaty  repudi- 
ated, 310;  Georgia's  defiance, 
310;  claims  extinguished, 
311,  313;  Georgia- Adams 
controversy,  31 1-3 13. 

Cuba,  concerns  for  future  (1822, 
1825),  209,  282;  movement 
for  annexation,  210;  mutual 
jealousies  of  America  and 
England,  210,  217. 

Cumberland  Road,  and  west- 
em  migration,  81;  effect  on 
freight  rates,  100;  Monroe's 
veto  (1822),  230-232;  na- 
tional repairs,  232;  exten- 
sion, 287;  project  of  state 
ownership,  287. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  migration  of 
family,  78. 

Debt,  federal,  loans  (1820. 
1821),  140. 

Democracy,  rise,  9;  western 
ideals,  107. 

Democratic  party,  growth  in 
New  England,  16-20;  tenets, 
(1824),  10 1.  See  also  Elec- 
tions, Politics,  and  leaders  by 
name. 

Detroit  in  1830,  96. 

Dickerson,  Mahlon,  bibliog- 
raphy, 340. 

"Doughfaces,"  165  n. 

Dwight.  Timothy,  on  character 
of  pioneers,  20. 

Economic  conditions,  period  of 
readjustment,  4,  5;   differen- 


INDEX 


357 


tiation  in  west,  72;    process 
of  western  settlement,  84-87 ; 
bibliography,    346-348.     See 
also  Agriculture,  Commerce, 
Finances,   Internal  improve- 
ments. Manufactures,  Public 
lands.  Tariff. 
Education,    advance    in    New 
England,      26;       in     middle 
states,  40;   western,  107. 
Elections,    presidential     (1824) 
early  preyiaration,  176;  char- 
acter of  candidates,  177-19' • 
possible  issues,  191-194,  255- 
257;  Adams's  plan,  194,  198; 
nomination  of  Lowndes,  195; 
Calhoun's      candidacy      an- 
nounced,     196;      Crawford's 
intrigues,     196-198;      Craw- 
ford's princijjles  and  support, 
245;   opposition  to  him,  246; 
southern  support  of  Adams, 
247;     Crawford's   lead,    24S; 
his  paralysis,  248;  Clay's  and 
Calhoun's  canvass  in  Ilovise, 
248;   Adams's  strength,  249- 
251;   Jackson's  canvass,  2s  i ; 
his    nomination,    252;     Clay 
nominated,     252;      revolt 
against     caucus,     2t;2,     253; 
caucus  nominates  Crawford, 
253;      vice-presidency,     254, 
260;     New   York   campaign, 
257-260;  electoral  vote,  259, 
260;  vote  in  House.  260-264; 
corrupt  -  bargain    cry,    267- 
271;    (182S)  use  of  tariff  is- 
sue, 3I5-3I7-  319-321- 
"  Era  of  Good  Feeling,"  reahty, 

6,  172,  177,  265. 
Erie  Canal,  Clinton's  expecta- 
tions, 32;  effect  in  western 
New  York,  33;  business,  34; 
effect  farther  west,  34;  on 
New  York  City,  34-36;  .in- 
fluence on  transportation, 
226;  bibliography,  350. 
Everett,  Edward,  as  literary 
statesman,  26. 


Exploration  of  far  west,   119- 
123- 

Far    west,    topography,    iii; 
Indian  trade,  113;  forts,  113; 
American  influence  over  Ind- 
ians,  114;    beginning  of  set- 
tlements, 116;   fur-trade  and 
exjjloration,  1 18-123;    Santa 
F<j  trade,  124;    routes  devel- 
oped,   125;     government  in- 
terest,      125;       government 
cxi>editions,    126.    127;    con- 
sidered   uninhabitable,    127; 
bibliography,    -37.     See  also 
California,  Oi   gon. 
Federalist  part\  ,  decay  in  New 
England,      16-20;      survival 
(1820),  174;  attitude,  175. 
Finances,      speculation,       135; 
panic  of  18 19,   136;    opposi- 
tion to  United  States  Bank, 
137,  300;    replevin  and  stay 
laws,    138-140;     public    rev- 
enue, 140;   loans,  140;   bibli- 
ography, 347- 
Flint,  Timothy,  as  writer,  xo8. 
Florida    treaty,    influence    on 
Adams's  candidacy,  192;  and 
recognition  of  Spanish-Amer- 
ican republics,  204,  205. 
Floyd,  John,  and  Oregon  coun- 
try, 128. 
Foreign  affairs,  policy  of  isola- 
tion, 199;   difliculty  in  main- 
taining it,  200 ;  Clay's  failures, 
297;    bibliography,  351,  352. 
Sec    also    Monroe    Doctrine, 
Panama  Congress. 
Fugitive  slaves, attempted  Eng- 
lish rendition  treaty,  298. 
Fulton,  Robert,  steamboat  mo- 
nopoly, 103. 
Fur-trade,  traders  reach  Pacific 
coast,  112;  methods,  113;  in 
far  west,  1 18-123. 

Gaines,  E.  P.,  and  Troup,  311. 
Gallatin,  Albert,  on  Jackson  in 


358 


RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST 


Senate,  189;  vice-presidential 
candidacy,  254;  West  Indian 
trade  negotiations,  295. 

Galveston  pirates,  203. 

Gas,  introduction,  40. 

Gazetteers  of  period  1820-1830, 
342. 

General  survey  act  (1824),  232- 

^  235- 

George,  Fort,  in  Oregon  coun- 
try, 117. 

Georgia,  growth,  57;  western 
character,  57;  and  Indian 
lands,  309-313;  defies  na- 
tional government,  310-312. 
See  also  South. 

Germans  in  southern  highlands. 

51- 

Gray,  Robert,  on  the  Columbia, 
116. 

Great  Britain,  and  Spanish- 
American  revolt,  202,  210- 
215;  American  West-Indian 
trade,  294,  295. 

Great  Salt  Lake  discovered, 
121. 

Greece,  recognition,  218. 

Green  Bay,  fort  at,  114. 

Guides  of  period,  1820- 1830, 
342. 

Harbor  improvement,  232. 

Ilarrisburg  Convention,  317. 

Hartford  Convention,  influence 
on  nati(jnalism,  299. 

Harvard  College,  Unitarian  con- 
trol, 24;   lil)eralization,  26. 

Hayne,  R.  Y.,  on  decline  of 
South  Carolina,  64;  on  tariff 
(1824),  239;  on  slavery  as 
domestic  question,  284. 

Hemp,  tariff  of  1824,  237. 

Holy  Alliance,  purpose,  211; 
and  Spanish  America,  212; 
Canning's  protest,  214;  Rus- 
sian exposition,  216. 

Hudson's  Bay  Company  on 
Pacific  coast,  116,  117. 

Hvill,  James,  as  writer,  109. 


Illinois,  southern  settlers,  76; 
and  United  States  Bank,  137; 
attempt  to  introduce  slavery, 
150.  See  also  Northwest, 
West. 

Imperialism,  aspect  of  national 
growth,  6,  297. 

Imprisonment  for  debt,  reform, 
40. 

Indiana,  southern  settlers,  76; 
and  United  States  Bank,  137 ; 
attempt  to  introduce  slavery, 
150.  See  also  Northwest, 
West. 

Indians,  cessions,  73;  extent  of 
range  (1830),  iii;  trade, 
113,  1 1 8-1  23;  reduction  of 
British  infiuence,  114;  reser- 
vation recommended,  115; 
plan  to  assimilate  thwarted, 
115;  antagonism  of  pioneers, 
115;  Georgia  and  Creeks, 
309-313;  and  Cherokees,  313. 

Internal  improvements,  Ene 
Canal,  32-36,  226;  southern 
attitude,  50,  234,  235,  304; 
state  turnpikes,  37,  225; 
western  demand,  100,  106; 
and  nationalism,  224;  nat- 
ural obstacles,  224;  Balti- 
more's problem,  227;  by 
southern  states,  228;  by 
New  England,  228;  national, 
urged,  228;  Monroe's  atti- 
tude, 228;  House  resolves 
(18 1 8),  229;  Calhoun's  re- 
port, 230;  National  Road  bill 
(1822),  230,  2^1;  Monroe's 
veto,  231;  national  repairs, 
232;  harbor  act  (1823),  232; 
general  survey  act  (1824), 
232-235;  Clay's  arguments, 
233;  as  is.sue  (1824),  255; 
Adams's  comprehensive  pol- 
icy, 276,  286;  extension  of 
National  Road,  287,  288; 
disregard  of  general  system, 
287,  28S;  popularity,  288; 
state  canal  systems,  288-293; 


INDEX 


359 


first  railroad,  291,  293;  land 
j^rants  for  state,  293;  failure 
of  plan  for  national  system, 
294;    bibliography.  348-351. 

Inventions,  cotton-gin,  45. 

Iron,  Pennsylvania  industry, 
36,  39;    tariff  (1824),  237. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  as  leader 
of  discontent,  148;  political 
character  and  record  as  can- 
didate, 188-191,  193,  255; 
canvass  (1824),  251;  nomi- 
nated, 252;  senator,  253; 
electoral  vote,  260;  vote  m 
House,  263;  spreads  corrupt- 
bargain  cry,  270;  resigns 
from  Senate,  271;  and  tariff 
of  1828,  315-317.  321 ;  manu- 
scripts, 340. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  financial  de- 
cline, 59;  and  Colonization 
Society,  152;  on  Missouri 
struggle,  16S;  on  Jackson  in 
Senate,  189;  on  Canning's 
Spanish- American  proposals, 
215,  216;  favors  Crawford's 
candidacy,  245,  246;  and 
supreme  court,  301;  nullifi- 
cation suggestion,  305;  death, 
306. 

Johnson.  R.  M.,  and  appellate 
jurisdiction  of  supreme  court, 
300. 

Judiciary  controversy  in  Ken- 
tucky, 139,  See  also  Su- 
preme court. 

Kelley,  Hall,  and  Oregon 
country,  123. 

Kent,  James,  and  manhood 
suffrage,  176. 

Kentucky,  Bank  of  Common- 
wealth, 1 38;  replevin  and 
stay  laws,  139;  court  contro- 
versy, 139.  See  also  South- 
west, West. 

King,  Rufus,  speech  on  Mis- 
souri bill,  1 57-161;   on  effect 


of  Compromise,  173;  sup- 
ports Adams,  250;  minister 
to  England,  272;  emancipa- 
ti(jn  resolution,  277. 
Kremer,  George,  and  corrupt- 
bargain  cry,  267,  268. 

Labor,  development  of  class  in 
New  England,  14;  demand 
in  west,  85;  bibliography, 
348.     See  also  Slavery. 

Lee,  Jason,  in  Oregon,  124. 

Letcher,  R.  P.,  and  election  of 
1824,  262. 

Lewis,  W.  B.,  manages  Jack- 
son's canvass,  251. 

Liberia  established,  152. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  migration  of 
family,  78. 

Literature,  New  England  move- 
ment, 25;  in  middle  states, 
40;   western,  108. 

Live-stock,  New  England  in- 
dustry, 14;  western  industry, 

lOI. 

Local  government  in  Virginia, 
60. 

Long,  S.  H.  expeditions,  114, 
126. 

Louisiana  purchase,  treaty  and 
slavery,  158. 

Louisville  in  1S30,  97. 

Lowndes,  William,  on  tariff 
(1820),  145  ;  presidential 
nomination,  195;  death,  195; 
and  internal  improvements, 
229. 

Luncly,  Benjamin,  and  Coloni- 
zation Society,  152. 

McDuFFiE,  George,  and  inter- 
nal improvements,  235;  and 
tariff  (1824),  240;  (1828), 
319,  323;  state  rights  evolu- 
tion, 307. 

Mackenzie,  Alexander,  reaches 
Pacific  coast,  116. 

McLane,  Louis,  and  Missouri 
Compromise,  156. 


360 


RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST 


McLean,  John,  postmaster- gen- 
eral, 272. 

McLoughlin,  John,  in  Oregon 
country,  117. 

Macon,  Nathaniel,  as  states- 
man, 65;  and  Adams's  pol- 
icy, 278. 

Madison,  James,  financial  de- 
cline, 59;  on  decay  of  Vir- 
§inia,  61;  and  Canning's 
panish-American  proposals, 
216. 

Maine,  admission,  160,  166. 
See  also  New  England. 

Mallary,  R.C.,  woollens  bill,  315. 

Mangum,  W.  P.,  bibliography, 
340. 

Manufactures,  development  of 
factory  system,  4;  rise  of 
New  England,  13;  of  Penn- 
sylvania, 39.     See  also  Tariff. 

Marshall,  John,  on  appellate 
jurisdiction  over  states,  301. 

Marshall,  Thomas,  on  decline  of 
Virginia,  58. 

Maryland  and  internal  improve- 
ments, 227.  Sec  also  Balti- 
more, Middle  states. 

Massachusetts,  Federalist  and 
Congregational  control,  18. 
See  also  New  England. 

Mercer,  C.  P.,  on  seaboard  de- 
cline, 58. 

Mexico,  designs  on  Cuba  (1825), 
282. 

Middle  states,  transition  zone, 
28-30;  race  elements,  29; 
nationalism;  rapid  growth, 
30;  development  of  western 
part,  30,  31;  industrial  de- 
velopment, 31-40;  literary 
movement,  40;  social  ameli- 
oration, 40;  isms,  40;  politi- 
cal traits,  41-44;  and  tariff 
(1824),  242,  243;  (1828), 
320;  bibliography,  335.  See 
also  states  by  name. 

Mills,  E.  H.,  on  Calhoun's  char- 
acter, 184. 


Milwaukee  in  18,^0,  96. 

Miranda,  Francisco,  schemes, 
200,  2or. 

Mississippi  River,  transporta- 
tion route,  102. 

Missouri.  See  Missouri  Com- 
promise, West. 

Missouri  Compromise,  Missouri 
applies  for  admission,  154; 
House  anti-slavery  amend- 
ment, 155,  156;  compromise 
line  suggested,  156;  Senate 
rejects  amendment,  156;  pop- 
ular agitation,  n;6;  King's 
anti-slavery  speech,  157-160; 
Missouri  and  Maine  com- 
bined, 161;  compromise  in- 
troduced, 161;  southern  po- 
sition stated,  161  -  164  ; 
combated,  164;  compromise 
passed,  164-166;  cabinet  dis- 
cussion, 166;  compromise  on 
free  negroes,  167;  on  elec- 
toral vote,  168;  significance 
of  struggle,  168-170;  south- 
em  dissatisfaction,  170,  173; 
effect  on  southern  policy, 
171;  as  political  issue,  172- 
174,    192-194;   bibliography, 

345- 
Monroe,  James,  financial  de- 
cline, 59;  and  Missouri  com- 
promise, 164,  166,  170;  and 
Crawford's  loyalty,  196,  197; 
political  neutrality  and  lack 
of  policy,  198;  and  Spanish 
America,  204,  205,  207,  210; 
message  on  Monroe  Doctrine, 
218-220;  and  internal  im- 
provements, 228;  political 
character,  266;   manuscripts, 

340- 
Monroe  Doctrine,  genesis,  199; 
American  interest  in  Span- 
ish-American revolt,  203; 
Adams's  first  policy,  204, 
212;  influence  of  Florida 
negotiations,  204,  205;  Clay's 
advocacy  of  recognition,  204; 


INDEX 


361 


and  of  an  American  system, 
206;  recofrnition,  207;  ques- 
tion of  Pacific  claims,  207- 
209;  of  Cuba,  209-21 1 ;  Holy 
Alliance,  211,  216;  England 
and  intervention,  212;  Can- 
ning's proposal  of  joint  dec- 
laration, 213,  214;  Euro- 
pean conference  on  Spanish 
America,  214;  reception  of 
Canning's  proposal,  215-217; 
Adams  presents  doctrine, 
216-218;  and  Greece,  218; 
statement  in  message,  218- 
220;  authorship,  220;  recep- 
tion in  Europe,  221,  222;  at 
home,  223;  and  Panama  Con- 
gress, 2S3;  bibliography,  351. 

National  Road.  Sec  Cumber- 
land Road. 

Nationalism,  outburst,  4-299; 
reaction,  5,  300-302;  western 
ideal,  109;  and  internal  im- 
provements, 224.  Sec  also 
Sectionalism,  State  rights. 

Negroes,  free,  problem,  151; 
Colonization  Society.  152, 
304,  308;  Missouri  Compro- 
mise on,  167;  South  Carolina 
seamen  act,  308.  See  also 
Slavery. 

New  England,  prox^ncialism, 
10;  political  decline,  11; 
population  (i  790-1 830).  11; 
shipping  indxistry,  i  2 ;  rise  of 
manufactures,  13;  agricult- 
ure, 14-16;  political  and 
religious  change,  16-20,  24; 
western  migration,  20;  com- 
munity organization,  21; 
morale,  21,  22;  refonning  in- 
stinct, 22,  23;  literary  move- 
ment, 25;  education,  26; 
abiding  power,  26;  state  in- 
ternal improvements,  228; 
and  tariff  (1824),  239,  242, 
243;  (1828),  318-321;  bibli- 
ography, 334. 


New  Orleans,  in  1830,  98;  as  a 
p(jrt,  297. 

New  York,  western  growth,  30, 
31;  transportation  demand, 
31;  effect  of  Erie  Canal,  32- 
36;  decline  of  family  politics, 
41;  Council  of  Appcnntment, 
41;  political  machines  and 
leaders,  42-44;  campaign 
(1824),  257-260.  See  also 
Middle  states. 

New  York  City,  effect  of  Erie 
Canal,  34-36;  chief  port,  297. 

Niles,  Hezekiah,  Register  as 
source,  341. 

Nominating  caucus,  revolt 
against,  252;  last  (1824),  253. 

Nominating  conventions  and 
spoils  system,  42. 

North,  gains  control  of  House, 
154.  See  also  sections  and 
states  by  name. 

Northwest,  character  of  New 
England  immigrants,  20-23; 
predominance  of  southern 
settlers,  75-77;  their  char- 
acter, 78;  overland  migra- 
tion, 79,  80;  its  routes,  80- 
82;  its  cost,  82;  process  of 
settlement,  84-86;  cost  of 
farms,  86 ;  skill  of  pioneer,  87 ; 
his  character,  88;  waves  of 
occupation,  88-90;  increase 
of  northern  settlers,  94;  de- 
velopment of  home  market, 
98;  supplies  for  southwest, 
99;  products,  loi;  and  slav- 
ery, 149-15 1.    5c^  a/50  West. 

Nullification,  Jefferson's  sug- 
gestion, 305;  Calhoun's  Ex- 
position, 32S-330. 

O'Fallon,  Benjamin,  expedi- 
tion, 127. 

Ohio,  southern  settlers,  76 ;  and 
United  States  Bank,  137, 
300;  emancipation  resolu- 
tion, 277;  canal  system,  292. 
See  also  Northwest,  West. 


362 


RISE    OF   THE    NEW   WEST 


Oregon  country,  British  in,  116; 
American  exploration,  116; 
Astoria,  117;  routes  into, 
117,  125;  British  dominance, 
117;  American  traders  visit, 
122;  beginning  of  American 
settlement,!  23;  joint  occupa- 
tion, 127;  Spain  cedes  claim, 
127;  discussion  in  Congress 
(1822), 128-133;  British  claim 
protested,  207;  also  Russian, 
208;  Russian  claim  delimit- 
ed, 209;   bibliography,  337. 

Pacific  coast,  disputed  con- 
trol (i 8 1 7) ,  112;  fur- traders 
reach,  112;  American  inter- 
est aroused ,  113.  See  also 
California,  Oregon. 

Panama  Congress,  invitation, 
280;  Adams's  attitude,  281, 
282;  real  purpose,  282;  dis- 
cussion in  Congress,  28^-285; 
barren  result,  285;  bibliog- 
raphy, 352. 

Panic  of  18 19,  speculation,  135; 
crash,  136;  western  stay 
laws,  138-140;  effect  on  pub- 
lic revenue,  140;  political 
effect,  147,  148,  191. 

Paper  money  and  panic  of  1 8 1 9 , 
136. 

Pennsylvania,  western  growth, 
36;  iron  and  coal  develop- 
ment, 36,  39;  transporta- 
tion problem,  36-38,  226, 
288;  politics,  38,  44.  See 
also  Middle  states. 

Periodicals  of  period  (1820- 
1830),  341. 

Philadelphia    loses    trade,    36, 

37- 

Pinkncy,  William,  on  Missouri 
bill,  161. 

Pioneers,  skill,  87;  life,  88. 
See  also  Northwest,  South- 
west, West. 

Pittsburg,  growth,  36;  iron  in- 
dustry, 36,  39;   in  1S30,  96. 


Polignac,  Prince  de,  and  Span- 
ish America,  214. 

Politics,  reality  of ' '  Era  of  Good- 
Feeling,"  6,  172,  177,  265; 
decline  of  New  England,  11; 
middle -state  traits,  41-44; 
development  of  machine,  42; 
southern  genius,  64-66;  rise 
of  west,  7 1 ;  western  ideals, 
106;  influence  of  panic  of 
1819,  147,  148;  threatened 
effect  of  Missouri  struggle, 
172-174;  bibliography.  337. 
See  also  Elections,  and  lead- 
ers, and  parties  by  name. 

Population,  middle  states(i82o, 
1830),  30;  slave  (1830),  55; 
west  (1820,  1S30),  70;  United 
States  (1820,  1830),  134;  free 
and  slave  states  (1820),  154. 

Potomac  River,  attempt  to  im- 
prove navigation,  227. 

Prairie  du  Chien,  fort  at,  114. 

President,  precedent  of  Mis- 
souri's vote  (1820),  168; 
electoral  reform  agitation  in 
New  York  (1S24),  258.  See 
also  Elections,  and  presidents 
by  name. 

Prices,  wheat  (1825),  105;  cot- 
ton (1816-1827),  325. 

Prison  reform,  40. 

Public  lands,  method  of  occupy- 
ing, 84;  credit  system,  84, 
135;  new  policy  (1820),  85, 
141;  speculation,  135;  as  so- 
cial factor,  140;  antagonism 
to  revenue  policy,  141,  286; 
effect  of  panic  of  1819,  141; 
agitation  fur  graduated  price, 
142;  germs  of  homestead  sys- 
tem, 143;  grants  for  internal 
improvements,  293;  bibliog- 
raphy, 348. 

Race  elements.  New  England, 
10,  14;  middle  states,  29; 
r.nuth,  51. 

Railroads,  beginning,  291,  292. 


INDEX 


3(>3 


Randolph,  John,  on  seaboard 
decline,  <;8;  as  statesman, 
65 ;  and  slavery  in  northwest, 
150;  and  Colonization  So- 
ciety, 152;  on  slavery,  163; 
on  "douj^hfaces,"  165  n.;  on 
internal  improvements,  233; 
on  tariff  and  secession,  241, 
321,  322. 

Readjustment  period,  3,  297, 
300-302. 

Reid,  R.  R.,  on  slavery,  163. 

Relijoon,  influence  of  New  Lnj^;- 
land  emij^rants,  22,  23,  40; 
character  of  western,  109. 
See  also  sects  by  name. 

Representation,  opposition  to 
extending;  slavery,  159. 

Revenue,  effect  of  panic  of 
1S19,  140. 

Roads,  state  turnpikes,  37, 
225.  See  also  Cumberland 
Road. 

Roane,  Spencer,  on  Hartford 
Convention,  299;  attack  on 
supreme  court,  301. 

Rocky  Mountain  Fur  Company, 
activity,  1 19-1  2  i . 

Rush,  Richard,  and  Canning's 
Spanish-American  proposals, 
213,  214;  secretary  of  treas- 
ury, 271. 

Russia,  settlements  in  Califor- 
nia, 118;  ukase  on  Pacific 
claims,  209;  claims  delimit- 
ed, 209. 

Sx.  Louis,  in  1S30,  98;  centre  of 
fur-trade,  1 18. 

San  Martin,  ]os6  de,  Spanish- 
American  revolution,  202. 

Sanford,  Nathan,  vice -presi- 
dential vote,  260. 

Santa  Fe.  American  trade,  124. 

Scotch- Irish,  in  Great  Valley, 
29;     in    southern   highlands, 

51- 
Scott,    John,    and    election    of 
1824,  263. 


Search,  right  of,  and  slave- 
trade,  256. 

Secession,  threats  over  Missouri 
bill,  164. 

Sectionalism,  development  of 
tendency,  6;  combinations 
for  control,  6-8;  and  impe- 
rialism, 297.  See  also  Nation- 
alism, State  rights. 

Shipping,  New  England  indus- 
try, 12;  in  Asiatic  trade,  295; 
bibliography.  347. 

Slavery,  westward  extension 
and  politics,  46,  50,  52,  53; 
resuscitated  by  cotton,  49; 
spread  unifies  south,  54;  ad- 
vance into  southwest,  91,  92; 
its  modification  there,  92; 
attitude  of  northwest,  149- 
151;  argument  of  mitigation 
by  diffusion,  152,  163;  issue 
and  sectional  domination, 
1 53 ;  slaves  as  property,  1 59 ; 
opposition  to  further  repre- 
sentation, 15^;  south  and 
Ohio's  emancipation  resolu- 
tion, 277-279;  and  Panama 
Congress,  284,  285;  a  "do- 
mestic question,"  284;  at- 
tempted fugitive  rendition 
treaty,  298;  and  state  rights, 
304,  bibliography,  344.  See 
also  Missouri  Compromise, 
Negroes. 

Slave-trade,  domestic,  tendency 
in  Virginia,  62;  western,  93; 
foreign,  reopening  involved 
in  spread  of  slavery,  164;  in- 
ternational regulation,  256. 

Smith,  Jedediah,  explorations, 
121. 

Smith,  William,  on  southern 
exports,  48 ;  and  state  rights, 

307- 
Smj^h,  Alexander,  on  Oregon 

country.  129. 
Snelling,  Fort,  114. 
Social  conditions,  development 

of  labor  class,  4,   14;    New 


364 


RISE   OF   THE   NEW   WEST 


England  morale,  21 ;  isms,  22, 
41;  amelioration  movement, 
40;  Virginia  aristocracy,  59- 
6 1 ;  South  Carolina  aristocra- 
cy, 63;  early  northwestern 
life, 85-90;  early  southwestern 
life,  90-92;  western  democ- 
racy, 106;  rapid  growth,  134; 
public  lands  as  factor,  140. 
See  also  Education,  Litera- 
ture, Population,  Religion, 
Slavery. 
Sources^  on  period  1 820-1 830, 
printed  documents,  33S ;  writ- 
ings of  statesmen.  338;  au- 
tobiographies, ^39;  manu- 
scripts, 340;  periodicals,  341 ; 
gazetteers  and  guides,  342; 
travels,  343;   on  state  rights, 

345- 
South,  influence  of  cotton,  45- 
49;  resuscitation  of  slavery, 
49,50;  decline  and  American 
system,  48,  50,  56,  61-64, 
234.  235,  239-244.  304.  3J9. 
322,325;  system  of  minority 
rights,  50,  53,  160,  331;  op- 
posing areas,  50;  their  strug- 
gle for  control,  51;  effect  of 
slavery  on  this.  52;  unifica- 
tion, 54-56;  migration  of 
free  planters,  54;  staplc-prcv 
ducing  region,  56;  agricult- 
ural dependence  on  north, 
56;  seaboard  decline,  57-59; 
political  genius,  64;  classes 
of  statesmen,  65,  66;  reac- 
tion of  west  on,  69;  political 
effect  of  panic  of  18 19,  147, 
148;  minority  in  House,  bal- 
ance in  Senate,  154;  and 
Missouri  Compromise,  170, 
173;  state  internal  improve- 
ments, 228;  and  tariff  (1824), 
239-244;  (1828).  319,  322; 
and  Ohio's  emancipation  res- 
olution (1824),  277:  Adams 
alienates,  278;  bibliography. 
335. '  Sec  also  states  by  name. 


South  Carolina,  centre  of  south- 
ern politics,  50,  66;  change 
to  state  rights  leadership, 
66,  306-308;  decline  and 
political  protest,  63,  64;  life 
of  planters,  63;  negro  sea- 
men act,  308;  tariff  protest 
(1828),  322-324;  Calhoun's 
task  (1S28),  324:  Exposition, 
326-330.     See  also  South. 

South  Pass  discovered,  119. 

Southard,  S.  L.,  secretary  of 
navy,  271. 

Southwest,  growth  of  cotton 
culture,  46,  93;  character  of 
early  settlers,  77-79.  90;  im- 
migration of  slave-holding 
planters,  91 ,  92 ;  character  of 
slavery,  92;  slave-trade,  93; 
growing  southern  bias,  94; 
agricultural  dependence  on 
northwest,  09;  and  Indians, 
115.     See  also  West. 

Spain,  claim  on  Pacific  coast, 
112,  117, 127. 

Spanish  America,  Miranda's 
plans,  200,  201;  revolt,  202; 
British  aid,  202;  success, 
202;  American  interest,  203; 
recognition,  207;  bibliogra- 
l)hy,  351.  See  also  Monroe 
Doctrine,  Panama  Congress. 

Speculation  after  War  of  1812, 

135.  1.36. 

State  rights,  system  of  minority 
rights.  50.  53.  160,  331;  Vir- 
ginia's assertion,  301,  305; 
Taylor's  exposition,  302-304; 
and  slavery,  304;  develop- 
ment in  South  Carolina,  306- 
308;  Georgia's  defiance  of 
national  government,  311- 
313;  Calhoun's  Exposition, 
328-330;  states  alone  sover- 
eign. 329;   bibliography.  345. 

States,  new,  70;  conditional 
admission,  158,  159,  162; 
jurisdiction  of  supreme  court, 
301- 


INDEX 


365 


Stay  laws,  1^8-140. 

Steamboat,  influence  on  west, 
73,  103;   monopoly,  103. 

Stevenson,  Andrew,  speaker, 
318. 

Suffrage,  progress  of  manhood, 
175,  176. 

Supreme  court,  nationalistic  at- 
titude attacked,  300;  Cohens 
vs.  Virginia,  appellate  juris- 
diction over  states,  301. 

Tallmadge,  James,  and  Mis- 
souri Compromise,  155. 

Tariff,  southern  antagonism, 
48,  50,  61,  63,  304,  322-324; 
western  attitude,  106;  bill 
(1820),  protective  measure, 
143;  ])rovisions,  144;  home 
market  argument,  144,  145; 
opposition,  145;  distribution 
of  vote  in  House,  145-147; 
fails  in  Senate,  147;  (1824) 
provisions,  236-23S;  debate, 
238-242;  constitutional  ques- 
tion, 240-242;  distribution 
of  vote,  242,  243;  compro- 
mise measure,  243;  as  issue, 
255;  unsatisfactory,  314;  de- 
mand for  specific  duties,  315; 
woollens  bill  (1827),  315-31  7  ; 
and  politics  (1827,  1828), 
315-317.  3^9-321;  Harris- 
burg  Convention,  317;  (1828) 
provisions,  318;  and  New 
England  interests,  31Q;  vote, 
320,  321;  South  Carolina  Ex- 
position, 326-330;  bibliog- 
raphy, 347. 

Taylor,  John,  on  candidates 
(1823),  246;  exposition  of 
state  rights,  302. 

Taylor,  J.  W.,  and  Missouri 
Compromise,  155,  156;  sup- 
ports Adams,  250;    speaker, 

275- 
Territories,   control   of  slavery 
^in,  157. 
Texas,      relinquishment      de- 


nounced, 133;  Missouri  Com- 
promise and  relinquishment, 
170;  attempts  to  buy,  298. 

Thomas,  J.  B.,  and  Missouri 
Compromise,  161. 

Tompkins,  D.  D.,  bibliography, 

340- 

Tracy,  A.  H.,  on  Oregon  coun- 
try, 129. 

Transportation,  need  in  western 
New  York,  31;  western 
steamboat,  73;  western  mi- 
gration, 79-82;  cost,  82,  99, 
100;  Mississippi  River,  102. 
See  also  Internal  improve- 
ments. 

Travel,  character  and  routes  to 
west,  79-82 ;  cost,  82 ;  bibliog- 
raphy, 343-  . 

Treaties,  Russian  (1824),  209. 

Troup,  G.  M.,  and  Ohio's  eman- 
cipation resolution  ,277;  and 
Creek  lands,  310;  denance  of 
national  government,  311, 
312. 

Tucker  .George,  on  Oregon  coim- 
try,  130. 

Tucker,  H.  S.,  on  freight 
charges,  100;  on  Missouri 
Compromise ,  173. 

Tudor,  William,  on  New  Eng- 
land morale,  22. 

Tumbull,  R.  J.,  and  resistance 
to  tariff,  322. 

Tuyl,  Baron,  and  Russian 
claims,  209. 

Tyler,  John,  on  slavery,  163. 

Unitarianism,  rise,  18,  24. 
Universalism,  rise,  24. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  as  poli- 
tician, 43;  and  election  of 
1824,  250,  257,  264;  and 
Panama  Congress,  285;  and 
internal  improvements,  287; 
bibliography,  340. 

Vancouver,  George,  voyage, 
116. 


366 


RISE   OF   THE    NEW    WEST 


V^ancouver.  Fort,  117. 

Vetoes,  Monroe's  National  Road 
(1822),  231. 

Virginia,  loses  political  domi- 
nance, 50,  65;  seaboard  de- 
cline, 57-59,  61;  plantation 
life,  59;  local  Rovemmcnt, 
60;  land  poor,  61;  and  do- 
mestic slave-trade,  62;  and 
Missouri  Compromise,  173; 
internal  improvements,  228; 
and  supreme  court,  301 ;  and 
American  system,  305.  See 
also  South. 

Walker,  Joseph,  route  to  Cali- 
fornia, 123. 

Walla- Walla,  Fort.  117. 

War  of  181 3,  readjustment  af- 
ter, 3-5. 

"Webster,    Daniel,   on   effect   of 

EKice,  5;  on  decline  of  New 
ngland,  12;  on  political 
squabbles,  19;  as  literary 
statesman,  25 ;  and  man- 
hood suffrage,  176;  and 
Greek  independence,  218; 
and  tariff  (1824),  239;  (1828), 

West,  significance  of  rise,  67: 
conditit»ns  of  development 
and  ideals,  6S,  72.  106;  reac- 
tion on  east,  69;  growth,  70: 
voting  power,  7 1 ;  homoge- 
neity (181 5).  71;  industrial 
differentiation,  72,  94;  social 
unity,  72;  Indian  cessions, 
73;  effect  of  steam  naviga- 
tion, 73,  103;  occupied  areas 
(1810-1830),  74,  75;  section- 


al zones,  94;  cities  (1830), 
96-98;  overland  transporta- 
tion charges,  99,  100;  de- 
mand for  internal  improve- 
ments, 100,  106,  228;  Missis- 
sippi transportation,  102, 
105;  spirit,  103-105;  decline 
of  agricultural  prices,  105; 
demand  for  protection,  106; 
education,  107;  literature, 
108;  religion,  109;  national- 
ism, 109;  and  panic  of  1819, 
147,  148;  replevin  and  stay 
laws,  138-140;  and  tariff 
(1824),  238,  242,  243;  (1828), 
320;  bibliography,  336.  See 
also  Far  west.  Northwest, 
Pacific  coast.  Southwest. 

West  Indies,  American  trade, 
294. 

Wheat,  prices  in  west  (1825), 
105. 

Wheeling  in  1830,  97. 

Whitman,  Marcus,  in  Oregon, 
,124 

Whitney,  Eli,  cotton-gin,  45. 

Wilson.  J.  L.,  and  Ohio's  eman- 
cipation resolution,  277. 

Wirt,  William,  on  Calhoun, 
185;   attorney-general.  271. 

Wool  and  woollens,  tariff  of 
1824,  2^6;  demand  for  more 
protection.  314;  Mallary's 
bill.  315-317;  tariff  of  1828, 
318.  321. 

Wyeth.  Nathaniel,  Oregon  ex- 
peditions, 123. 

Yellowstone  River  expedi- 
tions, 126,  127. 


END    OF    VOL.    XIV. 


^b^i  Q 


^n\f 


X 


;   )3  5 


